If you’ve been around the software development field for any length of time you’ve experienced projects that have failed to meet the initial expectations of the customer either due to cost overruns, feature gaps, or simply poorly designed solution. While it is difficult being on the initial development team that is experiencing the mounting pressures and bruised egos, another particularly difficult role is that of the consultant who oftentimes is hired to be a White Knight and rescue the project from the clutches of failure.

It takes a special mixture of technical skills, ambition, and character to navigate the minefield that usually lies before them. While, to someone who has never been placed in this situation, this may appear to be an ideal position because the damage is already done, in reality the technical, political, and professional challenges are very difficult to overcome. While it is likely true that the ‘White Knight Consultant’ will be less responsible if the project eventually fails, the task of quickly identifying the roles of individuals involved, discovering the ‘actual’ business goals of the project, determining technical feasibility, identifying what parts of the solution are complete and/or missing, and finally how you are going to bind all this information into success for everyone involved is a challenge of the highest order. All the while, the consultant must be careful to avoid the political, professional, and financial landmines that will enviably be placed before them, intentionally or not.

The first step is to identify the roles of everyone involved. Job titles are not always enough to identify the role each person fills for a project. I’ve witnessed projects where a business owner with limited technical skills has designed the solution and then used contract labor to attempt to complete his grand vision. In other cases, I have seen business analysts play the role of project manager and solution architect. In either of these cases, the project has some very inherent challenges. Yet, initially, these roles must be identified and analyzed to determine the direct source of the business requirements.

To successfully identify the initial business requirements you ideally must have direct lines of communication with the project sponsor and additional key employees, specifically those with the business knowledge. If you do not have clear lines of communication then there is a high chance the project will continue to fail. If there are written business requirements, those should be reviewed with the project sponsor and the other key business team leaders. If the business requirements have not been documented then it would be advisable to sit with the technical team and extract the business requirements they had attempted to accomplish, document each requirement, and then review them with the project sponsor and key business leaders for viability. This serves two purposes; it allows you to specifically identify and document the scope of your effort and it facilitates gap analysis to determine what requirements were initially missed and which ones can be descoped from this effort entirely.

The next step is to determine the technical feasibility of the design. This requires both strong technical expertise and broad technical experience. Oftentimes, a White Knight Consultant will evaluate the project not based on its feasibility, but on their own personal preference to how it should be completed and this will not likely benefit the client in the short run (or long run if the project ultimately gets cancelled). If the project is over budget and off course, rewriting or redesigning large sections will not solve the primary issue. The good consultant should indentify what is useable in its current state, what needs to be reevaluated, and what is yet to accomplish.

The final analysis step is to review the time, money, and resources that you have available. All previous steps allowed you to understand the scope, thus now you can now compare the assets available against the effort. More often than not you will need to request additional time, money, and/or resources to successfully accomplish the scope of the project. You will be asked how much of each is needed to complete the project and this is usually very difficult to estimate for a number of reasons. Also notable, you must appreciate and communicate that the original estimates were developed with the luxury of time and now you are being asked to be more accurate in less time. Nine out of ten times you will be wrong, either in estimating to conservatively or to liberally. The art of estimating a challenge that lie somewhere determining the amount of fuel a rocket to travelling to mars and creating art on the head of a pin, thus it’s both an art and a skill.

The actual solution development effort in some ways is the easy part because you now have a somewhat fresh start, and are not obligated to initial assumptions. Optimism, even if tainted by lingering pessimism, will begin to breathe life back into the project. Team members will begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel and productivity will increase. However, the key is to keep the line of communication open throughout the process, keeping each key leader aware of the positive and negatives you encounter. Eventually the project will be completed and, if done correctly, will have solved the business requirements.

Playing the role of the White Knight Consultant is not always the easiest role, but when done correctly it will leave a lasting sense of pride and accomplishment.