Consulting Practicum

In this course, students will work as external consultants to an industry partner who will provide them with a question or challenge. Topics to be covered include: diagnosing the issues, developing a scope of work, preparing a proposal, contracting with a client, managing client relationships and communications, understanding client personnel reactions to consultants, identifying sources of direct and proxy data, including sources of external data used by leading consultants and conducting literature reviews, understanding data reliability and validity, assessing and accessing resources, changes in scope, preparing deliverables, monitoring progress, reporting results, achieving engagement closure and extensions of services. Additional topics will include professional organizations, consulting ethics and professional terms. Students will work in teams to conduct significant consulting projects, from contracting to presentation of results, with appropriate clients under the guidance of the course faculty.