Professional services revolve around creative thinking and problem-solving, tasks that don’t fit easily into standard processes. While established methodologies do exist, many consultants like to pick from them, to fit specific requirements. And arguably, the bigger the organization, the more such methodologies will be available, as opposed to smaller businesses that may specialize in one or two approaches.
But to assume standardization is about straitjacketing the approach your project teams take misses the point. In reality, the areas that will benefit include the way projects are managed and delivered: how they are planned and costed, how they are monitored during delivery and evaluated after completion.
This whitepaper describes how to implement standards that still allow your team to execute high value projects.
Introduction
It’s a classic case of the cobbler’s children, the holes in their poorly-fitting soles blistering their feet with every step. Professional services organizations (PSOs) routinely recommend their clients standardize their operating processes, reducing risk and increasing efficiency. Yet according to the 2012 Professional Services Maturity™ Benchmark Report, over half of large PSOs (700 employees +) don’t have a standardized delivery methodology themselves – an omission that could have a significant impact on project performance.
The Professional Services Maturity™ Benchmark Report, an annual study of over 800 PSOs by SPI Research Ltd, provides substantial evidence that “KPIs including sales pipeline, billable utilization and meeting margin targets increase with greater use of a standardized methodology.”
Of course, this will come as no surprise to most: these are exactly the kind of benefits that consultants will cite when they make the case for process improvement. So given this knowledge, why are so many professional services businesses still so resistant to standardization?
Plan and deliver
One reason, perhaps, is cultural: professional services revolve around creative thinking and problem-solving, tasks that don’t fit easily into standard processes. While established methodologies do exist, many consultants like to pick from them, to fit specific requirements. And arguably, the bigger the organization, the more such methodologies will be available, as opposed to smaller businesses that may specialize in one or two approaches.
But to assume standardization is about straitjacketing the approach your project teams take misses the point. In reality, the areas that will benefit include the way projects are managed and delivered: how they are planned and costed, how they are monitored during delivery and evaluated after completion.
