Link: http://www.etc-architect.com/?p=88
From ETC-Architect » IT Architect Global | Solution Architect, Global | IT Architect, Global
I am a consultant and there are many areas where consultants form an important part in todays world. however in the following little article I will show you that consultants are part of a symptom of in inefficiency, but can in some cases also be used to heal that symptom, which may sound wrong as you are either part of the problem or part of the solution.
The problem with consultants in the first area is that most are no consultants at all but just just expensive temporary workforce, often hired as most people with the skill in question will not work for low wages as one CIO just told me recently that he cannot employ anyone at more money than a pilot is offered and that his salary was that of a captain.
So when I am talking about consultants I mean people that are consulted as they have an area of expertise missing from the decision maker. Consultants however often are just asked to come up with a few options instead of just inject their knowledge. And when the consultants in questions are smart they will sell their services for the implementation as well. Most internal managers are happy to play the game as if anything goes wrong someone from outside can be blamed explaining that the external used his skills to manipulate so no blame attaches. Of course this systems leads to waste as no one internal in the organisation will ever be involved in any decision or real work and the organisation as such becomes even more reliable on outside help.
The ideal way to combat this is mainly to use internal consultants, but since managers are risk adverse this is not likely to happen, so instead we come back to temporary workforce with expert skills that are not part of a larger company and are only used for specific tasks mixed with internal people. If anything goes wrong as it will in nine out of ten projects the external scapegoat is still at hand.
