I have a good relationship with a client who I agreed to do some repeat business with earlier this year. The remit was quite vague but as I had previously carried out development project work for them and my background is technical development I thought they had a good idea what I good get involved with.
The original remit was to assess the current technical implementation and make recommendations. I presented my findings to the managerial team and suggested specific technical recommendations. They all agreed that the recommendations sounded sensible were good but no key decisions were made.
After very little action from the client I decided to go one step further and highlight the root cause of many of these technical issues. These were largely down to lack of processes and controls and inexperienced developers. Again the management team agreed these were issues but no action was undertaken and I was left at a loose end with no real guidance on what the client wanted.
At this point I felt that I could offer little more value as my real experience is technical development not change management. Although I continued to force the issue through high level technical documents, presentations and technical proof of concept work.
Eventually the management team agreed that something had to be done to address the technical situation so a project was set up to re-design and implement a better solution. I thought great this is something I can get involved with and add value but I still highlighted the fact that the processes and people were lacking.
Now after a month of the project and no resource allocated (other than myself) I find myself frustrated with the lack of process and the client still not giving me an indication of what they want or making any decisions. They are more that happy to have meetings to discuss the issues but the lack of action is infuriating.
As a consultant I don't think I should be instructing the client on how to engage with their permanent staff or making key business decisions on behalf of them. These are things (amongst others) they are looking for me to do.
I am now running out of patience and I am thinking about moving on before my current contract finishes before the end of the year. This is not something I have ever considered previously but I feel like I am wasting my time and their money going in circles.
Any guidance from people?
Thanks
The original remit was to assess the current technical implementation and make recommendations. I presented my findings to the managerial team and suggested specific technical recommendations. They all agreed that the recommendations sounded sensible were good but no key decisions were made.
After very little action from the client I decided to go one step further and highlight the root cause of many of these technical issues. These were largely down to lack of processes and controls and inexperienced developers. Again the management team agreed these were issues but no action was undertaken and I was left at a loose end with no real guidance on what the client wanted.
At this point I felt that I could offer little more value as my real experience is technical development not change management. Although I continued to force the issue through high level technical documents, presentations and technical proof of concept work.
Eventually the management team agreed that something had to be done to address the technical situation so a project was set up to re-design and implement a better solution. I thought great this is something I can get involved with and add value but I still highlighted the fact that the processes and people were lacking.
Now after a month of the project and no resource allocated (other than myself) I find myself frustrated with the lack of process and the client still not giving me an indication of what they want or making any decisions. They are more that happy to have meetings to discuss the issues but the lack of action is infuriating.
As a consultant I don't think I should be instructing the client on how to engage with their permanent staff or making key business decisions on behalf of them. These are things (amongst others) they are looking for me to do.
I am now running out of patience and I am thinking about moving on before my current contract finishes before the end of the year. This is not something I have ever considered previously but I feel like I am wasting my time and their money going in circles.
Any guidance from people?
Thanks
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