Successful Business Analysis Consulting

• Addresses how to effectively lay the foundation and structure of your consulting business; how to deal with or avoid the many pitfalls of working outside the corporate world and working remotely from home; and how to balance life, family, and work
• Presents a list of next steps at the end of each chapter with actions you can take immediately to begin applying the guidance and tips provided
• Furnishes valuable strategies and tips for such essentials as setting rates for your services, invoicing, purchasing appropriate insurance, establishing important business rules or policies, managing your finances and taxes, and other administrative aspects of your consultancy
• Articulates how to market your services, land both new and repeat business, negotiate deals, and craft written agreements with clients
• Describes how to establish multiple revenue streams, ways to leverage your work to develop sources of passive income, and some important issues of copyright, fair use, and managing and protecting your valuable intellectual property
• Provides sample checklists to help you keep all the activities you will be juggling as a consultant under control
• Identifies effective techniques for engaging clients in various situations, as well as warning signs about clients who can cause you headaches and how to deal with them
• Supplies solutions to a wide variety of problems and challenges of the consulting world, contributed by a group of noteworthy independent consultants with diverse experiences
• Discusses other common consultant activities that can generate a steady flow of revenue such as training, presenting at conferences, and other public speaking, and provides guidance and tips for delivering effective presentations with confidence
• Offers strategies and tips pertaining to partnering with other consultants on larger projects and how to make such arrangements work
• Examines the value of participating in professional associations and pursuing relevant professional certifications as a way to market your services and attract new clients and opportunities
• Explores the benefits of writing white papers and articles for magazines, journals, websites, and blogs as a means to simultaneously share your knowledge with the world and market your expertise to prospective clients
• Elaborates on the process and value of writing a book in the area in which you consult, how to get it published and distributed by a reputable publishing company that can reach your market, how to co-author a book effectively, and how a good selling book can be a powerful tool for getting clients and building your business
• WAV offers downloadable templates for consulting, writing, speaking, and licensing agreements, and checklists and forms to help you plan and manage your consulting business—available from the Web Added Value™ Download Resource Center at www.jrosspub.com

Since 1997, Karl Wiegers has been Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software development consulting and training company in Happy Valley, Oregon. As a consultant, he has worked with more than 130 companies and government organizations of all types, helping them improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their software development activities. He has also delivered more than 600 training classes, keynote speeches, and conference, webinar, and podcast presentations on business analysis, software development, project management, and other management topics. Previously, he spent 18 years at Eastman Kodak Company, where he held positions as a photographic research scientist, software developer, software manager, and software process and quality improvement leader. Karl received a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois. Karl Wiegers is a sought-after speaker and author of the professional books Software Requirements, More About Software Requirements, Practical Project Initiation, Peer Reviews in Software, and Creating a Software Engineering Culture. He has also written nearly 200 published articles on many aspects of software development, business analysis, and project management. Several of this well-known thought leader’s professional publications have won awards, including the Society for Technical Communication’s Award of Excellence for his best-selling book with Joy Beatty entitled Software Requirements, 3rd Edition, and Software Development magazine’s Productivity Award for his leading-edge book entitled Creating a Software Engineering Culture. Karl has also served on the Editorial Board for IEEE Software magazine and as a contributing editor for Software Development magazine. You can reach Karl through www.processimpact.com or www.karlwiegers.com, provided he isn’t playing one of his guitars, out delivering Meals on Wheels, or volunteering at the library.

Part 1. Setting Up Shop

CHAPTER 1. THE JOURNEY FROM PRACTITIONER TO CONSULTANT

CHAPTER 2. HANGING OUT THE SHINGLE

CHAPTER 3. HEY, WORLD, HERE I AM! (By Gary K. Evans)

CHAPTER 4. PARTICIPATING IN PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (with Joy Beatty)

CHAPTER 5. MODES OF CONSULTING: WHAT’S YOUR PREFERENCE?

CHAPTER 6. THE CONSULTING LIFESTYLE (By Gary K. Evans)

Part 2: On the Job

CHAPTER 7. MAKE A LIST, CHECK IT TWICE

CHAPTER 8. NO EASY ANSWERS

CHAPTER 9. CONSULTANTS AS LEGITIMATE LEADERS: THE GOLDILOCKS APPROACH (By Jeanette Pigeon)

CHAPTER 10. OMG, WHAT HAVE I DONE?! ANTICIPATING RISKS WHEN WORKING WITH OTHERS (By Vicki James)

CHAPTER 11. THE DREAM CLIENT

CHAPTER 12. CLIENTS WHO GIVE YOU GRIEF

CHAPTER 13. DIFFICULT CLIENT? TRY THESE QUICK TIPS (By Margaret Meloni)

Part 3: Practicalities

CHAPTER 14. WHAT ARE YOU WORTH?

CHAPTER 15. MONEY MATTERS FOR THE NEW CONSULTANT (By Gary K. Evans)

CHAPTER 16. GET IT IN WRITING

CHAPTER 17. EVERYTHING’S NEGOTIABLE

CHAPTER 18. WHEN ONE IS NOT ENOUGH

CHAPTER 19. IT’S A MATTER OF POLICY

CHAPTER 20. FOR YOUR PROTECTION (with Gary K. Evans)

Part 4: Building the Business

CHAPTER 21. A KIND OF BUSINESS PLAN

CHAPTER 22. BE PREPARED FOR THE UNEXPECTED (By Claudia Dencker)

CHAPTER 23. HOW TO GET REPEAT BUSINESS FROM YOUR CLIENTS (By Adriana Beal)

CHAPTER 24. THE CHALLENGES OF REMOTE CONSULTING

Part 5: Media Matters

CHAPTER 25. OUT OF ONE, MANY

CHAPTER 26. ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

CHAPTER 27. SEVENTEEN TIPS FOR BECOMING A CONFIDENT PRESENTER

CHAPTER 28. SOME PRESENTATION TRICKS I HAVE LEARNED

Part 6: Writing Your Way to Success

CHAPTER 29. YOU ARE WHAT YOU WRITE

CHAPTER 30. FOUR EYES ARE BETTER THAN TWO

CHAPTER 31. WRITING FOR MAGAZINES, WEBSITES, AND BLOGS

CHAPTER 32. YOU SAY YOU WANT TO WRITE A BOOK?

CHAPTER 33. GETTING YOUR BOOK INTO PRINT

CHAPTER 34. BEING YOUR OWN PUBLISHER

CHAPTER 35. ON CO-AUTHORING A BOOK

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

“Read it. Learn from it. Apply it. Getting a peek inside successful consulting like this reveals a true gold mine! Karl Wiegers outlines exactly what you need to do, and what decisions you need to make, to create a thriving consulting practice.” —Laura Brandenburg, CBAP, Founder and Creator, Bridging the Gap “Successful Business Analysis Consulting provides fantastic practical guidance and insights. You will find this book of high value, whether you are a seasoned consultant or just starting to think about taking the plunge into running your own consulting practice.” —Laura Paton, MBA, CBAP, IIBA-AAC, PMP, PMI-PBA, Founder of BA Academy, Inc. “Simply put, this is the book I wish I’d had available to me when I started consulting. It provides valuable advice on pretty well everything that touches on the consultant’s life. It almost seems unfair! Karl Wiegers lets the reader in on the secrets that took the rest of us a lot of pain to learn. If you’re starting out on your own, you couldn’t do yourself a better favor than reading this book.” —Howard Podeswa, author of The Business Analyst’s Handbook, Chief Executive Officer, Noble Inc. “The mark of a successful self-help book is that it prompts readers to immediately help themselves. I have put a number of the author’s suggestions into practice, some as soon as I read them in the book.” —Steve Blais, PMP, PMI-PBA, author of Business Analysis: Best Practices for Success “Covers the broadest landscape of issues that you may encounter as a BA consultant with practical, down-to-earth advice to help navigate them. The action-provoking “Next Steps” at the end of each chapter compel you to behave differently based on that sage advice. Even after consulting for 15 years, I picked up a handful of valuable tips, and I have already applied a few!” —Jim Brosseau, Principal at Clarrus Consulting Group “Successful Business Analysis Consulting is full of powerful advice. Even now, 20 years after first going independent, I learned a few things from this valuable resource. If you are a newly independent consultant or are contemplating it, this book has the advice you need to succeed.” —Mike Cohn, Co-founder of the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance, Owner, Mountain Goat Software “Oh, how I wish I had the resources in this book when I struck out to form my own company. This book is a treasure. But don’t think you need to have your own consultancy to gain insights from this valuable work. Many chapters are beneficial even when one is working inside an organization, especially at the senior levels. Whether you are an independent business analyst, project manager, or other type of IT consultant, Karl’s book is for you.” —Kathleen B. (Kitty) Hass, Principal Consultant and Founder, Kathleen Hass and Associates