Brains for Hire / Blame for Hire - The Life and Challenges of a Consulting Project Manager

Project management courses and methodologies tend to concentrate on Project Managers dealing with a single project, with one budget and one set of financials. However, when consulting, this is rarely the case - consultants frequently deal with multiple projects, for multiple customers, each with different budgets, priorities, and goals. Consultants must weigh the time demands of multiple projects and fit them all into a single 8 hour day / 40 hour (or often more) week. Consultants also need to consider their own finances, ensuring that they do not over-commit their own personal or corporate resources on any one project, rendering it unprofitable.Consultants will find that the projects they are offered will be the highest risk, the most unwinnable project imaginable, and they simply need to somehow make them succeed. On the other hand, consultants in project management often enjoy a level of credibility with upper management within the client organization that internal Project Manager may not have.In this paper we'll discuss aspects of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), and how it can be modified to deliver projects under the unique pressures of a Consulting Project Manager