Tell me about a time when you had two or more stakeholders with conflicting needs and how you helped to resolve the situation.

"I was the lead analyst for an application suite that managed the request and approval process for creative work and tracked all of the costs associated with it. My stakeholders were a mix of senior managers responsible for the development of media and senior managers responsible for financials. The creative side was focused on how quickly the solution could be used as any slow down to their process resulted in the loss of competitive advantage. The financial stakeholders were interested in assuring that the costs for every work assignment were tracked throughout the process. Every new data point the financial stakeholders requested frustrated the creative users.I was encouraged to work with each group separately, but decided that it would be beneficial to bring them together so that they could foster a greater level of appreciation for the needs of each side. I facilitated a steering committee and was pleased to find that my clients quickly adopted a shared perspective resulting in my ability to more easily implement solutions that were understood and supported by everyone."

Stakeholders on technology projects typically represent groups with conflicting business needs. This question is aimed at ensuring an IT business consultant candidate has the ability to identify conflicts and facilitate their resolution.

Avoid answers focused on personality conflicts. It is difficult to be sure what kind of personality type your interviewer might have. You could potentially offend the interviewer if you speak negatively about an issue they sympathize with.

What types of individuals do you seek out as mentors?

"I believe that anyone can be a mentor to me at any time. There is always something to learn by observing practices that work well or fail for individuals. My approach to seeking a formal mentor is to find someone with the ability to challenge my thinking and offer insight. I appreciate learning to think from perspectives outside of my own because it helps me to anticipate the needs of others when designing solutions."

This is a behavioral question aimed at understanding your learning preferences. Interviewers are interested to know that a candidate is concerned with professional growth and understands the value of learning from others.

Some individuals are uncomfortable formally seeking out mentors. Avoid directly exposing this behavior if this is the case for you.

How do you handle situations when the needs of the business conflict with the direction of a technology team?

"I leverage my facilitation skills heavily in cases where my business clients and the technology teams responsible for developing or maintaining their solutions do not agree. I adopt a neutral standpoint and consider all of the perspectives involved. From there, I work to create mutual understanding between the parties and develop a way forward that ensures everyone gets something of value in the end. For example, I worked with a business that was a customer-facing and fast-paced 24x7 operations organization. It was difficult to find time for small maintenance updates, and scheduling large upgrades was a challenge. I worked with the management across each operating team to determine the best possible windows to make changes and train their staff. I developed a custom roll-out strategy for large initiatives and a standing maintenance window for smaller deployments. This often meant that my team and I were working overnight or during weekends, but our flexible attitude and commitment to customer service were greatly appreciated. Additionally, I ensured that the members of my team were rewarded for their hard work with extra paid time off."

Interviewers understand that technology teams and their clients are not always in alignment. This question is asked to gain insight into a candidate's ability to resolve conflicts, empathize with the needs of a business partner, and ensure that important technical milestones are met.

Avoid examples that resulted in sacrifices made by one party or another. Outcomes that do not transcend the conflict involved or offer rewards when one side makes concessions in a conflict do not leave the best impression possible.

Describe a time when you had to convince a customer that their desired solution was not in their best interest.

"I was asked to complete an executive-level discovery effort of a business's implementation of a particular technology. My client was unhappy with their current solution and had decided that they wanted to replace it with something new that their competition was using. I was familiar with the capabilities of both systems and agreed that the new system was a potential candidate. However, upon review of their high-level requirements, workflows, implementation specifics, and budget constraints it became apparent that modification of their current system was a better fit. I developed a presentation that demonstrated how the current solution could be adjusted in a manner that would offer the needed operational efficiencies. Additionally, I outlined the cost for changing systems in terms of software, hosting costs, implementation time, and maintenance. I was able to clearly demonstrate that making adjustments to the current system would be cost-effective and easier for their staff overall."

There is often a difference between the image of success a client has in mind and what is feasible or adds the most value. This question is asked to ensure that a candidate understands this potential conflict and has a method to address it.

Avoid using language that indicates you feel clients are not capable of understanding technical complexities. The ability to educate with examples and figurative language is a major skill an IT business consultant should be able to demonstrate in any given situation.

Remember to demonstrate emotional intelligence in your answer while making it clear you also rely on analytical methods such as a cost-benefit analysis to help your client understand why another option is a better fit.

Tell me about a time when you had to deliver difficult news to a customer.

"I had a customer who needed to automate a time-intensive data entry workflow by integrating with our company's payroll system. I had previous experience with this type of automation and knew that this initiative would add value in terms of time savings, accuracy, and employee satisfaction. I facilitated meetings to discuss the integration possibilities with the technical team responsible for payroll. I was informed that they were in the process of reviewing a replacement payroll system and my project would not be eligible for consideration until the new system was in place. I knew that this meant it would be a long time before my client could meet their goals, and I knew they would be frustrated. I developed custom reporting solutions using Excel and other tools that saved time and eased pain points until they were allowed to integrate with payroll. I also suggested workflow changes and shifts in duties for some of their staff that would streamline the process. I explained the situation fully and my client appreciated that they were understood and that my team and I were willing to do whatever we could to help while they waited to integrate."

There is often a disconnect between the needs of a client and the solutions that technology teams can actually deliver. IT business consultants are frequently called upon to moderate negotiations between the involved parties. Interviewers ask this question to ensure that a candidate has the necessary soft skills to understand their client's frustrations and develop alternative options to address solution gaps.

Avoid detailing a scenario in which you communicate bad news without providing a way forward. Additionally, refrain from examples that resulted in your being removed from a project due to a client's frustration.

The STAR (situation, task, action, results) method works well for this question. Be sure to select the news you delivered that had a sizable impact on your client and outline your efforts to deliver a positive result even though the situation was less than optimal.

How do you handle clients that are uncomfortable adopting new technology?

"I have used various strategies for working with clients that are uncomfortable adopting new technology. My first step is to talk with them to determine the root causes of their concerns. Sometimes they feel their job security is at risk. Sometimes a training opportunity exists. Sometimes a personal issue or poor past experience is involved. A client may dislike the solution and feel it will adversely impact their operations or expose issues within their teams.To resolve those types of issues, I ensure that my clients know their concerns are important to me and I am invested in helping them to find a resolution. From there, I personally train them or offer stories of similar issues and resolutions from my past. I have also paired people with mentors or peers who have overcome similar challenges."

IT business consultants are often tasked with removing roadblocks and gaining support for the changes that will be made during various technology implementations. This question is asked to determine if a candidate has the soft skills necessary to address clients who are resistant to change.

Avoid answers that rely solely on escalation to management for problem clients. While this avenue exists in many cases, interviewers prefer candidates that leverage learning, mentoring, and customer service opportunities before jumping to escalation.

Remember to demonstrate understanding and empathy for your client in your answer. Emotional intelligence is an important quality for consultants responsible for ensuring implementations go smoothly.

Tell me about a time when you had to sacrifice quality due to budgetary, resource, or time constraints?

"I developed a strategy for a phased approach to improving the data entry and calculation for a multi-step workflow that had too many touch-points that resulted in errors. I implemented the first round of improvements based on their frequency of use and the impact they had on the business overall when the manual pieces of the process were handled incorrectly. My team and I delivered several successful features and then the executive management within the business paused the project to shift resources to a need they perceived as more important. This change in direction left a portion of my users leveraging a half-developed solution that was painful and not what was originally promised. I worked with their management to shift resources to provide additional support during peak business times. Eventually, our development team was able to circle back around and deliver the entire solution as it was originally designed."

Interviewers understand constraints and the need to make concessions when delivering technology solutions. They ask this question to determine how a candidate ensures that the sacrifices made are intelligently selected based on need and value.

Avoid examples where entire projects or programs of work are shut down indefinitely. An interviewer may interpret results like these as a gap in your strategic planning skills or inability to properly assess threats.

Include the details of how you supported a client through a difficult situation due to constraints. Interviewers understand that the outcome of the situation was less than optimal, but are interested in hiring candidates that add value and offer excellent customer service even when options are limited.

Describe a time when you implemented a solution that was customized to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders within a business.

"I worked with multiple HR groups within a large enterprise. They were in need of an employee onboarding solution that handled provisioning requests and integrated properly with various downstream security and technology systems. I developed a strategy for the first-pass solution for a group that had requirements that were representative of the majority first. From there, the teams I worked with were able to gather feedback, make adjustments, and then roll the solution out to the groups with similar workflows. While that took place, I was able to work with the outlier groups and develop plans to scale the solution appropriately to meet their needs. This strategy allowed us to realize a maximum level of business impact quickly while doing the detailed analysis necessary to meet the needs of the entire group of stakeholders."

IT business consultants are often asked to develop strategies for solutions that will serve multiple groups with significant workflow differences. This question is asked to determine a candidate's ability to meet the needs of complex stakeholder groups in an effective manner.

Avoid simplistic examples that detail implementations that do not require phased delivery. Projects without complex delivery strategies are often owned by more junior roles within a company.

Focus your answer on examples that clearly highlight your ability to think strategically. This should include delivering value to your clients incrementally and continually.

Describe a time when you suggested an unusual idea to a client.

"I worked with a lot of clients that were seniors and executives in the areas of accounting and finance, but a lot of the solutions I implemented were used by people in creative roles. From a business systems perspective, the main goals of my projects were to capture new data for reporting purposes, speed up data entry, or integrate disparate data sources. Many of my end users understood the need to track various points of data, but they often complained that they felt bored while using the systems. It seemed foreign to the executives I worked with at the time, but I suggested that we work with a user experience expert to update the look and feel of our systems to match some of the most popular and enjoyable sites available to the public sector. They were hesitant to move forward but agreed to proceed with my idea to hire a usability expert. I ensured our sponsors that we would focus on easy to implement and scalable changes that add value to the data entry process in addition to the aesthetic changes we made. The end result was a repeatable template we used for a series of systems that everyone enjoyed using more because they were more intuitive, faster to use, and easy on the eyes."

This is a behavioral question that highlights a candidate's ability to perform outside-the-box thinking. IT business consultants are often hired to develop creative and innovative solutions and interviewers select candidates who are comfortable suggesting forward-thinking ideas.Your example does not need to be generally unusual. The interviewer is concerned with how you present ideas that would seem unusual from the perspective of the client you pitch the idea to.

Avoid an answer that offers unusual suggestions that were not implemented or were not your own ideas. Also, avoid ideas that ultimately had a negative impact on your clients or led to confusion or rework.

Describe your experience designing and delivering global technology solutions.

"I have worked on several global solutions. I designed and implemented a solution that allowed my clients to gather profile information for various individuals who served as contributors to their business. The users of the system and the individuals that we maintained data about were globally located. The system stored personal and professional information and I did a lot of research and partnered heavily with our legal and information security teams to ensure that the solution was scaled appropriately and did not violate any data privacy laws. The enterprise SaaS solutions I have developed integrated strategies for were global as well."

Many companies have locations across the globe and require solutions to meet the data laws and standards of the region they are located in. Interviewers who ask this question are curious to know if you have experience analyzing the requirements involved in these types of implementations.

Avoid providing examples that are highly technical, detailed, and specific to a particular country or region. An IT business consultant may be required to know those details, but the intent of this question is to determine a candidate's ability to make the proper general considerations when designing and implementing global solutions.

What qualities of a company's culture do you appreciate the most? Dislike?

"I appreciate companies that foster environments where people are able to speak and act genuinely and authentically in the workplace. I dislike cultures that promote behaviors that stifle creativity and innovation. I am a supporter of process and social responsibility, and I thrive within companies that implement policy while maintaining a commitment to flexibility and the creative spirit."

This question helps determine whether or not a candidate is a fit for the culture of the hiring company. Interviewers are curious to know what cultural expectations you may have based on your preferences.Feeling comfortable with your working environment is of the utmost importance for all parties involved. In the event you are not asked this question, take advantage of the opportunity to ask the interviewer what they like the most about their company's culture during your interview.

Avoid culture dislike answers that directly associate your feedback with a current or former employer. For example: "I hated company XYZ's requirement to meet with a manager on a weekly basis." Interviewers may become concerned that you will speak poorly of their company when you move to another opportunity and might select another candidate as a result.

What business intelligence or analytic software do you have experience with?

"I have worked with Tableau several times. I was responsible for defining the integration requirements for the data we selected to pull in from source systems, setting up the various views, and ensuring the reports and dashboards provided quality information for my clients."

Business intelligence and analytic solutions drive a business's ability to make informed decisions. Interviewers ask this question to ensure the consultant they hire has experience delivering these types of solutions.Interviewers may require a new hire to have experience with a particular BI or analytic solution. Follow-up questions may be asked to ensure your skills in this area are in alignment with their specific needs.

Avoid focusing on a simple implementation such as a single report you helped to define or develop. Business intelligence solutions experience examples should be a part of a larger digital transformation initiative and have greater reach than a single report.

Who do you typically view as your peers and/or partners?

"My peers are usually architects, application development directors and managers, and customer service/support managers. My partners are typically senior managers, directors, or vice presidents from the various lines of business I work with. The titles and levels shift depending on the size of the company and the business impact of the initiatives I am assigned to. I view everyone I work with as an equal partner in terms of their ability to potentially add value to the work that I do. I feel that is an important aspect of my work as I often uncover essential details in unlikely places and at all levels of the organizations I work with."

An interviewer who asks this question is curious to understand the types of organizational structures a candidate has worked with in the past and what they might expect going forward. An IT business Consultant usually works directly with a mix of technical and business peers serving as a bridge between those two aspects of a business and interviewers want to ensure a candidate can blend well with their company's roles.

Avoid mentioning any roles that you would not be willing to view as a partner or a peer. Companies have a wide array of organizational structures and an IT business consultant should be comfortable partnering with anyone necessary to ensure the success of the projects or programs they work on.

Tell me about a time you were required to give an executive-level presentation.

"I was hired as a consultant to review all of the scheduling and payroll procedures for an organization experiencing inefficiencies. I identified the workflows that had the most impact on the business goals I was provided, and put together an executive summary with my recommendations for tactical and strategic changes. The senior vice president of the organization was surprised to learn that many of the issues I highlighted were caused by improper use of technology they already had. Her staff had previously convinced her that their issues were a result of them not having access to the latest technology. I showed her how several major pain points could be easily resolved through minor workflow and setup changes. She thanked me for my direct and easy-to-understand language and invited me to work with her team to assist them in developing an implementation strategy."

IT business consultants are often required to present discovery and analysis findings to executives responsible for setting goals and approving technology budgets. Interviewers ask this question to ensure candidates are comfortable communicating in a format that resonates with company leaders.

Avoid stories about presentations that you did not lead or played a minor role in. Additionally, avoid examples in which your communication was received poorly or confused your target audience.

It is possible that a potential candidate will not have had the opportunity to personally present to executives. If this is the case, be honest about your experience. Explain that you understand that executive presentations are high-level and communicate items such as business impact, budgetary needs, and trends. Provide examples of other important presentations you have given to demonstrate you are comfortable speaking under pressure.

What software development methodologies do you have experience in?

"I began my career as an analyst and project manager implementing waterfall methodology projects. The company I worked for shifted to using agile methodologies early in my career. I am trained in scrum and kanban and I have managed teams that follow each. I have served as a product owner and scrum master and I understand the roles involved and the delivery expectations within each methodology."

Many companies have transitioned to agile or lean implementation models that take an iterative approach to solution development. An interviewer who asks this question wants to ensure that you have experience working with the specific methodologies they use or want to transition to in the future.

Avoid embellishing your experience in agile methodologies if you have limited working knowledge of the practices and procedures. Each agile method has unique and specific deliverables, roles, responsibilities, ceremonies, and estimation methods. This question has the potential for follow-up questions regarding certifications or time spent in various roles and interviewers with knowledge of these processes will be able to identify candidates who are dishonest.

What kind of experience do you have traveling to client sites?

I have experience visiting various travel sites domestically and internationally for discovery, requirements gathering, and implementation efforts. I am comfortable with occasional travel.

This question often serves as a method to narrow large pools of candidates. Most companies believe it is important to determine a candidate's comfort level with travel scenarios upfront and may include this question in a phone screen interview.Interviewers expect answers such as 'occasional,' or 'up to X percent of the time.' Many IT business consultant assignments require travel to various client sites and will include the job requirement details within the job description of a specific role.

Avoid going into an IT business consultant interview without considering the potential for domestic and international travel. Answers that indicate that you are unsure about your travel comfort level may result in a company that requires regular travel to exclude you from additional interviews.

What is your process for staying up-to-date with the latest technology trends and solutions?

"I stay current on technology trends in a number of ways. I read various journals and articles on the subjects I am interested in and those that are relevant to the business of my clients. I also learn a lot by talking with my peers, clients, and competitors. I have taken classes and engaged in shadowing opportunities to learn specific technologies and skills. I recently completed a network security class to increase my knowledge in that area."

This question is asked to ensure a candidate understands that technology roles require them to actively engage in continuous learning. Interviewers are interested in IT business consultants with a drive to learn to stay current professionally and to meet specific needs of their clients.Additionally, interviewers want to know that candidates are open to seeking knowledge from a range of sources and are willing to work with whatever resources are available to them at a given time.

Avoid stating specifically that you are averse to investing further in your own education monetarily. Many companies offer educational benefits, but they also appreciate individuals willing to invest in their professional development outside of what their company offers.

Include examples that are free and easily accessible in addition to training your next employer would be required to invest in. This demonstrates resourcefulness and financial responsibility.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned so far in your career?

"The biggest lesson I have learned is the power of carrying a humble spirit and an open mind. I have learned that the best possible ideas for any given solution can come from anywhere. It is not always my job to imagine the best solution. It is my job to seek ideas out and bridge them together in a cohesive fashion so that they can be understood, supported, engineered, and implemented in the best way possible."

Interviewers ask this question to test a candidate's capacity for learning and growth. Acceptable answers can involve technical or interpersonal lessons and should demonstrate how you might add value to the hiring company.

Avoid answering this question with a lesson that is not scalable or repeatable. The most valuable lesson you have learned in your career should involve something that initially made a sizable positive change and offers potential for future value to the next company you work for.Additionally, avoid answers that are so specific or unique that they are unlikely to resonate with the interviewer. Offer an answer that is likely to be relatable.

What do you view as the most important qualities for an IT business consultant to possess?

"IT business consultants should have the experience to understand the basics of a wide array of business functions from both operations and information processing perspectives. Additionally, I feel it is important that an IT business consultant has worked within a number of roles within various types of project teams and on projects of various sizes. The combination of these two sets of qualities helps them to have the high-level visionary perspective that is required to develop technology strategy while also demonstrating the ability to understand the details that are important to consider while implementing solutions. I also believe IT business consultants need strong facilitation skills. We are often asked to lead through influence and spend a lot of time educating, gaining support, and resolving conflicts. It is important to be able to understand all of the perspectives involved and weave them into a shared perspective. These skills foster the trust necessary to bridge groups together and drive solutions from discovery to implementation."

Interviewers ask this question to see what qualities and/or skills the candidate they are interviewing believe they need in order to be successful. The answer provided helps the interviewer determine if the qualities listed are in alignment with the needs of their company.

Avoid listing vague answers such as having 'an open mind.' Open-mindedness is an important quality, but it is more important for an interviewer to know that you have the specific skills they require on an ongoing basis.

What do you consider optimal qualities for members of the teams you work with?

"Flexibility is one of the most important qualities I hope to experience with any member of a team I work on. The rate of change in technology is high and opportunities are often missed when individuals lack an open mind. I also appreciate humility and understanding that great ideas can flow from anywhere regardless of role or title. I respect authority, but I really enjoy working on teams where we see each other as equals at a core level and appreciate the diverse and unique backgrounds we all have to contribute. I find that fostering a comfortable environment where everyone feels safe and inspired to share equally leads to better solutions."

Interviewers ask this question to determine if a candidate is a cultural fit for the teams they will be working with. It is important to be clear about the qualities you appreciate the most as you are also interviewing the company you will potentially work for.

Avoid answering this question with preferences that are too specific or difficult to create within a team. For example, an interviewer might be hesitant to hire a consultant who expects to always work with experts in their field.

Describe the impact of an operational efficiency you were responsible for.

"I was responsible for a suite of applications responsible for managing the details of the work for the employees within various areas of the business. My clients were using paper timesheets that were often turned in late with a lot of errors and missing detail. A senior developer and I quickly stood up an app that allowed these employees to clock in every day when they arrived at work and validate the time detail of their assignments before leaving each day. Their managers could then review the data daily while it was fresh in their minds and approve it on an ongoing basis. This process sped up the timesheet entry, review, and approval process by over 70%, and the development of the solution was minimal in cost."

This question is asked to understand a candidate's ability to positively affect business operations. Hiring companies want to feel confident that a candidate has experienced success and will be able to add similar value to their operations.

Avoid offering a generic answer that does not clearly demonstrate the level of impact you had on the operations of your client. Answers that do not include statistics such as time, cost, or other resource savings are not as impressive as those with specific impact statements.

Describe your experience with enterprise-level solutions such as ERP or CRM.

"The ERP for the last company I worked for was PeopleSoft. I worked on several initiatives that integrated custom applications with various aspects of the solution including payroll and client billing. I also have experience with Salesforce. An application I was responsible for fed customer and purchase data used to trigger various marketing and messaging functions."

Many companies implement complex and integrated application suites that manage multiple aspects of their business. Interviewers ask this question to determine if potential candidates have the experience that matches the scale and complexity of their current and future solutions.

Avoid naming specific solutions you do not have expertise in. Interviewers will often have expertise in these systems and may ask a follow-up question about particular modules or features you might not be familiar with.

Some candidates have not had an opportunity to work with specific tools such as Salesforce or Workday that the hiring company uses. Do not discount your experience if your background lies in working with systems built for smaller organizations. Use this question as an opportunity to highlight your knowledge of the business practices enterprise-level solutions support such as accounting or finance and discuss any efforts you have worked on that integrate these areas from a technical perspective.

What are some of the factors involved in deciding between SaaS, 3rd party solutions hosted on-premises, and custom developed solutions?

"There a number of major factors to consider when deciding what type of solution is the best fit for a client's needs. The level of importance of each factor depends on the specifics of the business, but I feel it is important to consider factors such as: how well the business and technical requirements align with each solution, whether or not a competitive edge is to be gained from customization, development and implementation timeline requirements, overall budget, the scalability of each solution, how the solution will be handled from an accounting perspective, the in-house technical staff expertise and availability to develop and support a solution, and how well the solution aligns with the company's current technology stack."

IT business consultants are required to make recommendations for technology purchases and custom-developed solutions. Interviewers ask this question to ensure a candidate understands the factors involved in making an educated recommendation their clients can trust.

Avoid going into detailed technical considerations for a specific recommendation you were involved in. For example: "I need to ensure that the solution is compatible with XYZ browser version 123." This question is intended to ensure candidates understand the high-level business and technical factors that need to be considered.

Describe your preferred project discovery process.

"I begin by ensuring the business goals for whatever projects or series of projects I will be working on are clear. In the event they are not clear or defined, I meet with the stakeholders to drive out the correct level of detail needed to move forward. From there, I meet with the various business groups responsible for the processes that will be affected by whatever changes have been proposed. Additionally, I meet with the teams responsible for the current technology solutions in place. The artifacts I create as a result of the discovery process may include items such as context diagrams, workflow documents, market research, and cost analysis. The discovery phase is typically concluded by my giving a presentation that outlines the proposed strategic scope, high-level impact analysis, high-level cost estimates, and tactical next steps."

IT business consultants often lead discovery efforts for projects that are large in scope, costly, have time constraints, or have a high level of risk. Interviewers want to be certain that a new hire knows how to approach discovery and what the delivery expectations are at the end of the process.

Avoid discussing the need to meet with clients to ask them exactly how they would like to see the discovery process unfold. Consultants are expected to have the experience necessary to quickly drive the discovery in situations where client guidance is limited due to a lack of technical expertise and/or availability.

Describe your experience with vendor selection initiatives and the artifacts you were responsible for.

"I have led vendor selection initiatives for large and quick-hit solutions. I have experience facilitating the business requirement discussions, researching potential vendors, developing RFI and RFP documents, facilitating presentations, developing a scorecard to compare vendors, and serving as a technical subject matter expert during contract negotiation."

This question is asked by interviewers who anticipate the need for an IT business consultant to drive or participate in the section of a technology solution that will be purchased. Vendor selection efforts can be complex and lengthy initiatives. It can be essential for a candidate to have experience in the main phases involved.

Avoid detailing the areas of vendor selection that you were not personally involved in during an interview. Interviewers understand that companies share the responsibilities of this process differently and know that a generally knowledgeable candidate can quickly come up to speed to meet their specific needs.

What is the largest system implementation you have participated on in terms of number of users and budget?

"From a custom development perspective, I served as an analyst, project manager, and strategist for a system that had over 1200 users domestically and internationally. It managed resource scheduling, finance, and payroll functions and had an annual development and maintenance budget of 1.5 million dollars. The largest SaaS project I have worked on was a Salesforce implementation for a large enterprise. They had 650 users and the monthly licensing cost was $150 per user. There was an additional budget required for implementation, training, and integration."

This question is asked to get a sense of the scale of technology implementations an IT business consultant candidate has experience with. The user count and budget speak directly to the level of complexity a candidate can handle.

Avoid breaking down the numbers for specific pieces of an overall implementation you were responsible for. For example, if you worked on a single integration aspect of a CRM project, do not limit your response to the user base of that one module.

What are the factors involved in prioritizing system development and implementation work?

"One of the first things I consider when prioritizing development or implementation work is the alignment of the proposed changes to the goals of the initiatives I am working on. Items that serve more than one goal or have a large impact with minimal effort move to the top of the list. Additionally, there is a technical order of operations that needs to be considered. For example, I cannot release an app to a customer that allows for data entry if there is no database to capture the data in. I also allow for unforeseen changes in business needs or direction. Lastly, there may be bug fixes or technical debt features that need to be resolved in order to allow for the flow of work to continue through the system. The impact of those items must be weighed against the need for new functionality. There are additional considerations such as stakeholder happiness, or customer support issue resolution, but the overarching deciding factor in determining how to move forward in any of these situations relies on understanding the value stream of the business and the impact any proposed changes would have."

This is an important question aimed at understanding how an IT business consultant views demand, value, and order of operations. This question is asked because the ability to formulate an intelligent strategy that properly prioritizes competing needs is imperative to success in this role.

Avoid answers that indicate that there is a clear-cut strategy involved in prioritizing technology initiatives. Business and technology projects experience high rates of change and require flexibility. A candidate that does not understand how to assess the unique opportunities and develop a custom strategy for each project will be overlooked in many cases.

What do you view as the main goal of the IT business consultant role?

The main goal of an IT business consultant is to develop a technology strategy that takes full advantage of the available technology in a way that maximizes the business value generated by the solutions that are implemented. Additionally, IT business consultants facilitate technical discussions with senior leaders, users, and external customers. Finally, the ITBC serves as an advocate for their clients and the technology teams they work with."

Interviewers use this question to identify candidates that are not a fit for their company due to a mismatch in expectations. IT business consultants cover a wide range of responsibilities and the answer provided offers insight into follow-up questions that may be needed to ensure a candidate's expectations and skill sets are a match for the available position.

Avoid answers that are too in-depth and specific for this general type of question. You can enhance your chances of making it further along in the interview process by offering a basic description based on your knowledge of the role.

Review the details within the job description you were provided by the company prior to your interview. Mention keywords they used to describe the role to increase the chances your answer resonates with the interviewer.

What kind of leadership experience do you have?

"I mentored and led numerous business analysts throughout my career. I was responsible for setting the direction of their work, ensuring quality standards were met, and helping them grow professionally. Additionally, I led custom development and vendor implementation project teams while working as a project manager. As an IT business consultant, I mostly lead through influence and serve as a facilitator. I bridge groups with competing needs together and help them to define a common set of goals that collectively contributes to the value stream of their business."

This question is asked to determine the specific level of experience a candidate has in leadership roles. Some IT business consultants are asked to formally lead, and others are expected to lead through influence. Candidates with experience in multiple leadership formats are optimal in many cases. Some interviewers are concerned with aspects such as a candidate's ability to lead efforts of a certain size or manage direct reports. Be prepared to answer follow-up questions regarding direct management of resources and the size of any teams you were responsible for.

Avoid exposing your relative lack of experience if you were not given formal leadership opportunities in previous roles. Interviewers understand that not all leadership experience is explicit.

Mention any significant leadership experience you have from your personal life such as coaching, committee leadership, or mentoring. Also include examples of awards or accolades you received for outstanding leadership in your answer.

How do you move a project forward when you are faced with limited time for discovery and analysis?

"Clients often want to get moving as quickly as possible and do not have the desire to wait while all of the details are figured out. In this case, I usually request to facilitate a vision and goal-setting session with as many stakeholders as possible. During that time, I try to gather as wide a perspective as possible on what is working, what is broken, and what the high-level solution expectations are. From there, I lean on my experience and intuition to determine where I need to dig further and which areas I can leave at a cursory review.I establish relationships with the stakeholders as I go by taking them to lunch or calling them to brainstorm ideas. I also shadow front-line users in the areas that will be affected the most by whatever strategy we follow. I immediately implement any tactical changes that require minimal resources. This helps me to quickly gain trust with the users, their management, and the executives involved. That trust is imperative when I make my recommendation because it allows me to be transparent about the areas I did not have time to analyze fully while suggesting where to begin development."

You may be asked this question in an interview to assess your ability to quickly make progress with limited knowledge and resources. Interviewers are interested to know your processes for driving out scope details while you work to gain the trust of key stakeholders and make tactical changes.

Avoid answers that rely on conducting a lengthy set of interviews and analyze all of the results before moving forward. Additionally, avoid answers that are not likely to be feasible for the company you are interviewing with.

Remember to offer examples of how you would gather a broad scope of information by conducting largely facilitated sessions or using surveys. Also, remember to mention how you would add immediate value through the implementation of quick-hit opportunities.

How would you explain the concept of technical debt to a client and convince them to invest appropriately to resolve it?

"I would explain that technical debt represents the cost that must be incurred to address quality issues that occur during the development process. The root cause of technical debt can be timeline constraints, lack of knowledge/expertise, budget issues, or an inability to leverage the best technology available at the time of development. I would help convince my client to invest in resolving the debt by offering examples of how a failure to address technical debt resulted in additional future expenses and time making business-driven system changes. I would lean on a metaphor to help explain technical debt in the event I am working with a client that is not tech-savvy. Finally, I would work with my client to help them understand the potential impact on their budget and implementation timelines.

An interviewer asks this question to learn a candidate's process for educating a client on a technology concept they may have limited knowledge of. Some technology decisions are out of a client's hands and it is important to help them understand the value in investing in development initiatives they do not directly request.

Avoid communicating that you believe there are technical concepts that clients do not need to understand or be involved in. There are clients who do not wish to be educated on concepts such as technical debt, but all companies and clients are different and may not agree with a strict separation of responsibility.

How do you test and monitor the efficiency of the solutions you recommend and/or implement?

"The testing strategies I recommend depend on whether I am working to develop a custom solution or am implementing a 3rd party software. I also consider resource availability and the technological maturity of the business I am working with. If the solution is custom, the teams I work on typically develop testing strategies that are a mix of unit testing, load testing, automated testing, manual testing, and end-user testing. After implementation, we often deploy solutions for monitoring performance, logging errors, and gathering end-user feedback depending on the criticality of the system to the business. The process for vendor implementations varies and depends on what they have to offer and how well it integrates with the technology of my clients. I always recommend that my users fully review any new features before they accept them into a production environment. The level of testing depends on the feasibility and potential for business disruption if something goes wrong."

This is a technical process knowledge question. Many large organizations seek to create efficiencies through automation of various testing functions and interviewers often seek consultants who understand how to properly plan for and apply these methods.

Avoid an answer that relies solely on manual testing or any one testing strategy. Interviewers are interested in candidates that know how to properly scale solutions.

How would you partner with a client to define a high-level technology vision?

"I would begin by partnering with the experts within the business to perform a current state SWOT analysis. The goal would be to define what is working well, what needs improvement, and what threatens their success. From there, I would use an assessment matrix to compare the frequency and level of business impact for the items uncovered during the SWOT analysis. Finally, I would work with my clients to craft a high-level vision that honors their company's defined values and addresses the most impactful items uncovered during our discovery sessions."

IT business consultants typically get involved before large-scale programs are approved and funded. Interviewers want to understand how a candidate would work with their company to ensure that the most valuable and strategic projects are selected and align with a clear vision.

Avoid leaving the interviewer with the sense that you would solely deliver the technology vision to the business. ITBCs are experts but are often generalists on the specific areas of business they are hired to consult on. Interviewers may not select candidates that fail to properly demonstrate an inclusive process.

IT Business Consultant Interview Questions

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1. Tell me about a time when you had two or more stakeholders with conflicting needs and how you helped to resolve the situation.
2. What types of individuals do you seek out as mentors?
3. How do you handle situations when the needs of the business conflict with the direction of a technology team?
4. Describe a time when you had to convince a customer that their desired solution was not in their best interest.
5. Tell me about a time when you had to deliver difficult news to a customer.
6. How do you handle clients that are uncomfortable adopting new technology?
7. Tell me about a time when you had to sacrifice quality due to budgetary, resource, or time constraints?
8. Describe a time when you implemented a solution that was customized to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders within a business.
9. Describe a time when you suggested an unusual idea to a client.
10. Describe your experience designing and delivering global technology solutions.
11. What qualities of a company's culture do you appreciate the most? Dislike?
12. What business intelligence or analytic software do you have experience with?
13. Who do you typically view as your peers and/or partners?
14. Tell me about a time you were required to give an executive-level presentation.
15. What software development methodologies do you have experience in?
16. What kind of experience do you have traveling to client sites?
17. What is your process for staying up-to-date with the latest technology trends and solutions?
18. What is the most valuable lesson you have learned so far in your career?
19. What do you view as the most important qualities for an IT business consultant to possess?
20. What do you consider optimal qualities for members of the teams you work with?
21. Describe the impact of an operational efficiency you were responsible for.
22. Describe your experience with enterprise-level solutions such as ERP or CRM.
23. What are some of the factors involved in deciding between SaaS, 3rd party solutions hosted on-premises, and custom developed solutions?
24. Describe your preferred project discovery process.
25. Describe your experience with vendor selection initiatives and the artifacts you were responsible for.
26. What is the largest system implementation you have participated on in terms of number of users and budget?
27. What are the factors involved in prioritizing system development and implementation work?
28. What do you view as the main goal of the IT business consultant role?
29. What kind of leadership experience do you have?
30. How do you move a project forward when you are faced with limited time for discovery and analysis?
31. How would you explain the concept of technical debt to a client and convince them to invest appropriately to resolve it?
32. How do you test and monitor the efficiency of the solutions you recommend and/or implement?
33. How would you partner with a client to define a high-level technology vision?

IT Business Consultant Interview Questions

1. Tell me about a time when you had two or more stakeholders with conflicting needs and how you helped to resolve the situation.

2. What types of individuals do you seek out as mentors?

3. How do you handle situations when the needs of the business conflict with the direction of a technology team?

4. Describe a time when you had to convince a customer that their desired solution was not in their best interest.

5. Tell me about a time when you had to deliver difficult news to a customer.

6. How do you handle clients that are uncomfortable adopting new technology?

7. Tell me about a time when you had to sacrifice quality due to budgetary, resource, or time constraints?

8. Describe a time when you implemented a solution that was customized to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders within a business.

9. Describe a time when you suggested an unusual idea to a client.

10. Describe your experience designing and delivering global technology solutions.

11. What qualities of a company's culture do you appreciate the most? Dislike?

12. What business intelligence or analytic software do you have experience with?

13. Who do you typically view as your peers and/or partners?

14. Tell me about a time you were required to give an executive-level presentation.

15. What software development methodologies do you have experience in?

16. What kind of experience do you have traveling to client sites?

17. What is your process for staying up-to-date with the latest technology trends and solutions?

18. What is the most valuable lesson you have learned so far in your career?

19. What do you view as the most important qualities for an IT business consultant to possess?

20. What do you consider optimal qualities for members of the teams you work with?

21. Describe the impact of an operational efficiency you were responsible for.

22. Describe your experience with enterprise-level solutions such as ERP or CRM.

23. What are some of the factors involved in deciding between SaaS, 3rd party solutions hosted on-premises, and custom developed solutions?

24. Describe your preferred project discovery process.

25. Describe your experience with vendor selection initiatives and the artifacts you were responsible for.

26. What is the largest system implementation you have participated on in terms of number of users and budget?

27. What are the factors involved in prioritizing system development and implementation work?

28. What do you view as the main goal of the IT business consultant role?

29. What kind of leadership experience do you have?

30. How do you move a project forward when you are faced with limited time for discovery and analysis?

31. How would you explain the concept of technical debt to a client and convince them to invest appropriately to resolve it?

32. How do you test and monitor the efficiency of the solutions you recommend and/or implement?

33. How would you partner with a client to define a high-level technology vision?