System architecture, object design, build-release-test cycle definitions, tool configuration, coding…etc…
These are just some of the things that bring me back to software engineering in June, in my new company.
I consider myself to be extremely lucky to have worked with some exceptional technical and functional domain experts as a Technical Consultant for one of the world’s private banking software solution leaders, in one of the banking capitals of Europe for the past year and a half.
Being able to harvest knowledge from hardened veterans who have been in the trenches for years has certainly given me a good understanding on how things work in the Private, Retail and Core Banking world.
I must say though, that going from codebase and development junkie to functional and technical product evangelist was quite a revealing experience.
As a developer, I had always seen the consultants with whom I had worked with from a skeptic dilbertesque point of view: the fancy suits, the nice cars and the expensive hotels already created an important distance before even starting to work together.
There are many stories out there about the mystical Consultant that appears in a messiah manner to save the souls of the doomed project: whether it be with magic wordings, sacred vendor-specific knowledge or just pointing out the obvious, their presence is almost always mysterious and ethereal.
The mysterious aura surrounding consultants tends to exaggerate their performance: good consultants will be remembered as wizards with efficient problem solving techniques, while others will be remembered like the strange guy who nobody knew and just wandered around all day.
Having worked on the past as a developer taming one certain beast, I was often frustrated when one of the beast’s consultants could not answer some of my questions.
After being on the other side, I now see that probably the most important virtue of a vendor specific consultant is not what he /she knows, but rather what he / she can find out: the consultant will probably be your best link to the developers behind the product, and the key to the knowledge you are looking for.
So next time your are face to face with one of theses mysterious vendor consultants, remember to throttle frustration if your answers are not given to you on the spot, and instead be patient for the information to be collected by your only link to the products core…
Tags: Consultants, Developers