| Topic Name: |
Consulting hours |
| Message Name: |
All consulting projects are mismanaged |
| Date Posted: |
12/16/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
I've been in consulting for about 4 years, working on very large technology projects for a big 4 firm. Here are my observations:
Everyone knows that if people are working long hours for extended periods of time, it's due to bad management. At my firm, managers get dinged for this. Everyone hears about the bad projects and the best people will avoid them unless they've been stuck on the bench for a while.
Of course, it's a bigger deal for the project to come in on time and budget. No one will say anything to the manager if they meet their profit goals, the client is happy, and there is add on work coming in.
Typically, every project has crunch time and everyone works long hours to meet a deadline. You will also have some weeks where you only have 30 hours of work. Treasure those weeks and don't kill yourself trying to turn a 30 hour week into a 55 hour week. The client could throw 90 hours of work at you the next week.
Small projects are more likely to have long hours and weekend work. They typically have tighter deadlines and are seen by managers as a sprint rather than a marathon. Anyone can take 4-5 weeks of long hours, but productivity suffers and people quit if they are working 3-4 months of long hours.
Different roles will have more/less hours at various times of the project. For instance, during elaboration, the analysis guys will work lots of hours, but the testing guys will have nothing to do. I, personally, would never be a DBA or a network admin. Those guys always have to work after hours to set stuff up or fix stuff while everyone else is sleeping.
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| Message: |
I have never seen one go smoothly. Of course that shouldn't be a surprise since the project managers rarely have even the slightest understanding of the technology they implement. Usually they screw up promising something they can't deliver, the team has to work until midnight and then its the clients fault for being "dificult".
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