Christopher Timmerman's Blog: Mr IDM

I was out of the office last week, on one of my all to familiar last minute trips to an un-familiar place with little information or direction on what I was going to do when I got there. I decided it would be a good idea to hire one of those airport shuttle services. The price of gasoline and the long drive from my home to the airport was not something I looked forward to, this was a nice change. The driver was late as I expected, I had asked him to come earlier than I had needed, I was fine with it. I had pre-paid his tip so I did not need to fumble around with cash at the last minute; I assumed that if they got me to the airport at all I would be happy with the service. I arrived at the airport a little early, as I typically do. The driver was very apologetic and felt that he had ultimately let me down, not done his job. I assured him that it was no big deal and I thanked him for his safe driving and his kindness. After all he was a very kind and interesting older gentleman, I genuinely liked him. When I arrived inside the airport the security line was so long I could not see the end. I could not believe the amount of people in the airport. Once again, I was ultimately un-effected by the situation.

So what does this story have to do with anything? The simple fact is, without my 10 years of experience flying 20 to 40 weeks a year, the outcome of my little story would be much different. I would have probably been very upset at the driver (and the company that hired him). I would have potentially missed my flight, causing a bad situation with my client and my employer. All in all I would have not been a happy camper. The truth of the matter is, I have been in that exact situation more times than I can count. I don't know a single consultant that hasn't. Why was this time different? Were the stars aligned? Did traffic suddenly disappear and allow the drive to be much faster? Did the distance get shorter? Of course not, the difference was that I knew what to expect. My expectations prompted my actions, and therefore assured me (or gave me the allusion) that I was in control of the situation.

The moral of this story is to give you plenty of time to get to the airport. Just kidding! There is however, a serious lesson to be learned here. If you equate my simple story to that of an enterprise software project; is there any difference in my responsibility to clients? I would argue there is not, it is my obligation to help clients understand and to set expectations appropriately. Honesty based on experience, doesn't always mean that a project is going to go on without a hiccup, but it certainly has done me justice. Hence, the implied value of the consultant, to say to our clients "I have seen this before; this is what happened under these circumstances". The value of our experience, I believe, is not measurable in simple terms. If I could brain dump my 15 years of experience to a junior level consultant I would, I can train him/her but nothing, absolutely nothing can replace experience in the field.

As consultants and SME's , do we have the ability to do something about these simple oversights? I believe that we can prepare consultants for the field, much like an army would prepare it's soldiers. Perhaps this is where the term "bootcamp" comes from in respect to product specific training. Ultimately, Senior Enterprise Consultants are the key to success of enterprise software. Without their real world practical experience, we would always miss our flights.