Micro-Consulting: A Golden Opportunity That Presents A Terrifying (Potential) Threat

"On an annualized basis, employers will need to fill nearly 2.2 MILLION new project-oriented roles each year through 2027."

- PMI, Job Growth and Talent Gap in Project Management 2017

With many seasoned project management practitioners reaching retirement age, there has been a threat of a potential gap in the availability of qualified talent in project management. As the global economy becomes more project-oriented, the demand for project management has continued to grow. Although project management professionals are trained and certified regularly, there are many factors that contribute to the loss of value of project management as an art form. In today's business environment, we want things fast, cheap, and potentially virtual if it will help reduce overhead costs. While many organizations have turned to third party project management consulting as a way to fill this gap internally, a newly emerging method of consulting is coming to change the game: micro-consulting.

Micro-consulting introduces a more modern form of project management (or any service, for that matter). This business structure supports the intricacies of project management at a lower cost, at a faster pace, and with reduced risks. Micro-consulting basically provides subject matter experts for the amount of time you want, with the budget you have, without necessarily having to deal with the cost of  formalities that are associated with traditional consulting such as co-location, formal bid proposals/selection processes, and lengthy timeliness to perform administrative tasks.

When I first heard of micro-consulting, I was extremely concerned about this emerging disruptive technology. After doing more research, I became even more concerned. As of right now, there are several organizations that offer micro-consulting services. From a functional perspective, there is LivePerson. LivePerson provides mobile services for sales/eCommerce, customer service, marketing, mobile engagement, industry solutions, cloud support, and technology. Through the use of different technologies such as Google Click-to-message, Facebook Messenger, mobile messaging, and their own product offering, LiveEngage, they connect clients with their customers in a way that is modern, convenient, and offered for just a fraction of the costs of regular consultants that perform the same kind of work. Today, LivePerson supports well known entities such as IBM, Microsoft, Intuit, and T-Mobile, just to name a few.

But wait! There's more!

On a more complex scale, there is also Federal MicroConsulting. This is the company that really caused concern for me. According the the website, this organization specializes in planning and program management, data and analytics, IT and cyber security, and people and organization development. This company claims that "all projects are priced at a fixed, flat rate of $3500 - under the federal micro purchase threshold". What does this mean? This means that these consultants may perform small scale projects without a formal competitive solicitation since it qualifies as a micro-purchase under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Federal MicroConsulting makes initial contact with potential clients in just one business day to lay the ground work. They immediately get to work, matching clients with qualified consultants that research and develop recommendations. In just three weeks (according to their website), they provide their clients with customized recommendations based on the business needs of the organization. This is fast, this is cheap, this is customized, and it is low risk. It is the epitome of the perfect solution.

Now, after reading this you may be thinking either "This is too good to be true" or "Should I worry about my job?" Both thoughts are valid, however, it depends on where you're sitting while change is happening. The purpose of micro-consulting is to provide quick, no nonsense assistance from a subject matter expert in the industry of your choosing. What micro-consulting is not good for is long term complex projects that are labor intense.

Specific to the Federal sector (since that is my experience), the government is overrun by federal contractors. The government seems to rely on expensive, large, mid to long-term contracts in order to perform project management functions. I personally have been a benefit of this trend and, while I do not believe the trend will go away anytime soon, I believe that the current economic climate will continue to force agencies to reevaluate, cut costs, and ultimately get rid of "luxuries" associated with project management. This may potentially lead to the outsourcing of some project-oriented jobs to micro-consulting companies for small scale projects, however, we have a long way to go before we rely on micro-consulting for more complex projects. I do not believe that this means that traditional consulting organizations within the government should get comfortable. Like many emerging technologies, micro-consulting popped up quickly and is continuing to grow. Leaders of traditional consulting organizations should begin to consider how they will compete with micro-consulting firms on small contracts, and how they might contribute to keeping traditional consulting relevant.

As far as project management, micro-consulting presents a concern because project managers are already a luxury and are sometimes considered nonessential. The attitude still exist the we do not need project management.We add value, but frankly, sometimes we come with a high price. Many companies look to outsource project management tasks already, and as professionals, this is one more thing to which we need to remain vigilant. Not to say that all of our project-oriented jobs will be gone tomorrow, but with modern business structures such as micro-consulting, how can we guarantee that by 2027 gaps won't be filled by micro-consultants? In the project management field we already see the changes. For example, waterfall and SDLC methodologies and more commonly being replaced with agile (#buzzword) methodologies.  There is nothing standing in the way of the growth on micro-consulting. Personally, I believe that the concept is genius: you give organizations just as much help as they want, reduce overhead costs and risks, and take on so many projects that you remain profitable. Micro-consulting has the potential to be a big part of the future of project management, and although it is seemingly "quick and dirty" (and potentially impersonal), it may fill the gaps - OUR GAPS - in project-oriented jobs.