What criteria should you consider when prioritizing problems as an IT consultant?

Determine whether solving the problem contributes to the fulfillment of long-term strategic initiatives. Problems that directly align with strategic goals should be given precedence, as addressing them not only resolves immediate issues but also advances the organization toward its vision.

Time and revenue loss are major concerns for any business. The best advice I can offer is to think long-term and adhere to the operating model. Each project or product has its own goals, target audience, and key components. Every technical feature should align with and support these goals, contributing to increased revenue or time savings. Implementing a top-notch feature with no connection to the business model is pointless, and conversely, addressing a tech gap pays off, even if it comes with a cost.

Imagine an IT consultant working with a client facing network connectivity issues. The first criterion they consider is the business impact of this problem. They delve into how the connectivity issues are affecting daily operations, employee productivity, and, ultimately, the client's bottom line. This understanding of the business impact guides the consultant in developing a targeted solution that not only resolves the technical issue but also minimizes the broader negative consequences for the client's business.

When choosing priorities as an IT consultant, we lean towards business impacts since they're visibly direct to stakeholders. Even if it's not the root problem, users often feel its effects. Gauge urgency, potential operational disruptions, and financial implications in the context of the bigger picture. By Prioritising issues affecting revenue, customer relations, or overall business efficiency. Regularly align with stakeholders to ensure your efforts address high-impact challenges in sync with business goals rather than user who can shout the loudest!

understand the root cause of the problem so that even if the problem is recurring, you know the reasons and can quickly resolve it with les downtime.

Aligning stakeholder expectations with business needs and impact is often a substantial part of the process. Assessing the feasibility of this alignment is crucial when prioritizing problems. Diverse stakeholders may have different, sometimes conflicting interests. Finding common ground is key. Focus on issues where stakeholder and business goals can align, as these typically lead to more effective solutions. Conversely, for problems where alignment is challenging, consider a strategic approach with stakeholder education or a phased solution. This effort in bridging expectations with business objectives is vital for setting priorities.

Encourage teams from different departments or disciplines to work together on problem-solving efforts. This approach harnesses diverse expertise and perspectives, leading to more innovative and comprehensive solutions.

Adopt an iterative problem-solving approach that involves continuous assessment and refinement of solutions. Rather than striving for a perfect solution from the outset, acknowledge that complex problems often require multiple iterations to reach an optimal outcome.

En base a mi experiencia, siempre es conveniente hacer una evaluación completa del problema y, en caso de encontrar algunos que sean simples y rápidos de resolver, conviene hacerlo y luego abordar los que resultan más complicados. De esta manera estamos brindando soluciones a parte de los problemas y ayuda a calmar la ansiedad y regular las expectativas de los usuarios. únicamente se recomendaría enfocarse en el problema mayor desde el principio, si consideramos que este puede estar generando los problemas menores o si es un problema mayor que requiere sea atendido a la brevedad posible.

When prioritizing problems as an IT consultant, personal interest alone isn't sufficient. Consider factors like business impact, urgency, and client priorities. Assess the potential consequences of each issue on the client's operations. Prioritize based on critical business functions, ensuring alignment with strategic goals. While personal interest can drive engagement, a comprehensive approach, blending technical relevance and business significance, ensures that your efforts address the most impactful issues, fostering client satisfaction and successful IT interventions.

When arriving at a tie-break while prioritizing problems, sometimes, the Pareto principle may provide insights. The Pareto principle, as Wikipedia presents it, says that “for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes”. More generally, this observation and several variations of it, has robust mathematics to support it, and many times, if true while prioritizing problems, it ruins at the end any Gaussian-oriented interpretations or expectations of the consulting practitioners, therefore keep it mind!