Scenario Planning for Boutique Consulting Firms - What Happens If Projects Get Delayed?
Boutique consulting firms depend on careful planning and scheduling to grow their business. Project start and end dates are set to ensure that certain resources are available to start on a new project immediately after the completion of the current project. The limited size of their “bench” – resources available but not assigned – means that project plans must be airtight and utilization consistently high.
The Domino Effect Of Project Delays
Problems arise when a project gets unexpectedly delayed. The client might be behind on providing necessary information or completing an internal task. Now the carefully planned end date is pushed back two weeks and the next project is in danger because the resources will be unavailable to start on time. For a boutique consulting firm, the effects of a single project delay can be magnified across the entire project portfolio, causing large drops in productivity, profitability and client trust.
Scenario Planning Using PSA Software
Large consulting organizations can “hire their way out” of this situation because even though there will be eventual utilization rate issues to deal with later, it is better to fix that problem than to endanger client relationships or risk project failure. But boutique consulting firms don’t often have that option. They are relying on careful project scheduling and maximum resource utilization to grow profitably, but since project delays are inevitable, it is critical to plan for them before they happen.
Using a PSA software solution like Projectworks for resource planning enables boutique agencies to create “what if?” scenarios, and model the effects on resourcing and timelines well in advance of a project’s start date. Project Managers can simulate the delay of project completion by three weeks and instantly see how other project’s resourcing is affected. This allows for different resourcing options to be considered, helping avoid project dependency risk – one project’s success being reliant on the completion of a different project.
Project planning becomes much more accurate once those previously unforeseen delays are taken into account. You can more confidently predict project start and end dates, knowing that resources won’t be double-booked, and there are contingency plans in place to avoid individual projects from becoming too tightly coupled or dependent on each other.
When your resource management software is integrated with your sales pipeline data, your project resource planning can start before the deal is signed. Your contract will then contain start and end date schedules and resourcing plans with all possible scenarios taken into account, preventing an “over-promise, under-deliver” scenario with your clients, setting the project up for success.
A Predictable Business Is A Profitable Business
The most profitable consulting firms are those that have an accurate forward-looking view of at least 60 to 90 days. Understanding your resourcing availability under all scenarios is critical for not only avoiding scheduling nightmares, but for confidently communicating timelines and planning new business with your clients.
Using PSA software like Projectworks for modeling scenarios and resource planning enables your boutique consulting firm to confidently plan for the future, even with limited resources and a high utilization rate. You can start planning for your firm’s future today, by signing up for a free trial of Projectworks, or let us demo Projectworks for you.
