State of the Consulting Industry – Customer Demand, Salary Survey & Trends 2011

In response to some developments over the past few years, the Consulting Industry has been undergoing some interesting changes.

As an example, the author of the article “Two threats facing the consulting industry” is of the opinion that:

As the consulting industry gradually emerges from the dark days of the Great Recession, the numbers are creeping back up to pre-recessionary levels: utilization and billing rates are up, pipelines are bulging and recruiters are busy. But even now, with all signs pointing skyward, new trends are emerging that might threaten the industry’s return to lucrative prominence.

It goes on to mention some of the opinions held by Industry Analyst – such as Fiona Czerniawska:

In a concise, well-argued piece, Fiona Czerniawska, founder of sourceforconsulting.com, discusses two emergent trends that could shake the consulting industry’s tree: internal consulting units and consultant-managers.

As further research and for those who have not come across it, Top-Consultant.com is a specialist careers website offering jobs in management consulting and internet consulting, consulting news from the big firms, industry analysis, get head-hunted facility, career information, salary survey and salary calculator, and online marketing.

This free report presents basic salary, benefits and bonus levels reported by type of consulting and seniority level. Separate data is presented for the geographical markets of UK, US, Europe and Australia – with expert commentary both from the Top-Consultant team and from our sponsors Huntswood.

Click here to download your PDF copy of the 2011/12 Salary Benchmarking Report.

You may also be interested in the following:

• October 2011: Consulting Market Update
• The Definitive Guide to UK Consulting Firms
• 2011 Recruitment Channel Report

I welcome your thoughts and experiences.

Software Development Methods – Selecting a Pragmatic Approach

Having personally done extensive work with many Organisations over the years to help them create, adapt and implement various types of SDLCs for specific transformational needs, I found the recent article by Mark Kennaley very insightful as a categorised summary of the types of Methods that exist.

Mark describes how the various Software Development Methods (used during an SDLC) often reflect the culture, structure and processes of the Organisation and promotes either positive or negative characteristics when it comes to Delivery of  Solutions that meet Business needs.

He states that the typical negative impact on an organisation manifests itself in various costly ways:

…Each time an organization embraces a new methodology, it triggers a large change management exercise. Within IT, this change typically involves a three-to-five year process that results in the following direct costs for a 1,000-person IT organization:

• Consulting, training, and mentoring costs to go from novice to competent, and even expert, using Stuart and Hubert Dreyfus’ skill acquisition model. For 1,000 people, this can cost $1 million to $2 million.
• Knowledge management, to avoid the risk of relying on tacit knowledge in the heads of coaches and consultants. If performed, the capture of standard work, or “our way of working,” results in more than $1 million in costs related to process-related software.
• Changes in approach can also trigger the need for new process management tools. Cost can range from free to $1 million or more.
• Costs related to putting a new software delivery infrastructure in place. Hitting the reset button can cost upward of $5 million.