Draft For Internal Review: Fill & Download for Free

I’ll mention two of the more common ones.Consultants sometimes do not review preliminary findings or deliverables with the client in advance of submission of the deliverable. This is important for two reasons: (a) to identify possible gaps or errors in the findings and the need for additional analysis; and (b) to identify possible negative reactions of the client in advance. In the second case, you don’t have to have the client agree with you, but you should anticipate possible objections and ways to address them.Consultants in planning the project and estimating costs, sometimes do not include time to review and modify draft deliverables. There is internal review (often more than one person); and client review, possibly where the draft report was not a formal deliverable. The consultant needs to realize that things will not often go as planned and internal reviews in particular can extend the calendar time and level of effort.

Expanding what I wrote on a similar question, these are three common mistakes of junior consultants. Actually these mistakes are occasionally made by some mid level and senior consultants also.Consultants sometimes do not review preliminary findings or deliverables with the client in advance of submission of the deliverable. This is important for two reasons: (a) to identify possible gaps or errors in the findings and the need for additional analysis; and (b) to identify possible negative reactions of the client in advance. In the second case, you don’t have to have the client agree with you, but you should anticipate possible objections and ways to address them.Consultants in planning the project and estimating costs, sometimes do not include time to review and modify draft deliverables. Consultants occasionally do not provide for the internal review (often more than one person) and client review, possibly where the draft report was not a formal deliverable. The consultant needs to realize that things will often not go as planned and internal reviews in particular can extend the project calendar time and level of effort.Consultants occasionally do not go back and correct a deliverable after they discover an error. Anyone can make an error. But sometimes consultants are so afraid of being identified with a mistake that even after discovering an error in a report or data submission, they are reluctant to notify their manager or the client.These mistakes are all correctable with proper training.

Here are some examples.1. Insufficient time planned for client review and discussion of draft deliverables. Sometimes the statement of work does not specify both a draft and final version of the final report or presentation and other deliverables. This doesn’t mean that the client doesn’t intend to review and make comments on deliverables and expect they will be revised and a final version submitted. This can add at least 2 weeks for each major deliverable.2. Insufficient time for internal review of deliverables. Occasionally, inexperienced project mangers do not allow for the time of principal or partner review of deliverables. Time is necessary both for the review and revision. Not doing this can cause the deliverable to be rushed and the quality reduced.3. Underestimating time to synthesize the information and analyses to prepare a detailed report or presentation. The final report or presentation should be a straightforward exercise of transferring the results of the prior analyses and recommendations. Too many consultants mix the analyses with the preparation of the report or presentation and try to do them at the same time. The result is often that the analysis and recommendations development tasks are rushed to meet a deadline for the report or presentation. Otherwise the project is delayed by several weeks.4. Not doing a detailed outline of the final report or presentation well in advance of its preparation. The development of a report or presentation will go more smoothly if the author knows in advance how it will be organized and what will go in each section. To try and do this concurrently with preparation of the content will most likely delay completion of the report or presentation. Or this will reduce the quality of the product as the author tries to figure out the organization at the same time he or she is struggling with the content.