Proper Care and Feeding of Computing Consultants

Dave Walker – Proper Care and Feeding of Computing Consultants: Excellent set of things you should do to get the most out of a consultant visit. I haven’t been consulting very long and it’s not the main part of my job, but I’d add:

• Let them know the hours you want them to be on site. It’s no fun for a consultant to be sitting outside the building at 8am when you start at 9:30. Similarly if you have an awesomely laid back European culture and finish at 4 they may be able to get an earlier plane home so it’s good to know in advance.
• Make sure the consultant knows the exact name of your department (and how to pronounce it if it’s a foreign country to them)
• Make sure you’ve lined up the important people your consultant will need to work with so that they are available. You don’t want expensive consultants wasting time waiting for people to come back from a meeting or trying to find the right people in the maze of your company.
• When they arrive show them where the bathroom is – where to get water from is important too.
• Recommended travel details if the place is hard to get to. Of course, flying into a different country and driving works out well if you just so happen to be upgraded to a convertible for free…