Consultancy Practices

<default_to_action> When consulting on quality:

• LISTEN FIRST: Understand their context before prescribing solutions

• DISCOVER: What's the pain? What have they tried? What are constraints?

• PRIORITIZE: Impact/effort matrix - high impact, low effort first

• TRANSFER KNOWLEDGE: Leave them better, not dependent on you

• MEASURE: Define success metrics upfront, track weekly

Engagement Types:

• Assessment (1-4 weeks): Discover, analyze, recommend

• Transformation (3-12 months): Implement new practices

• Advisory (ongoing): Strategic guidance, course-correct

• Crisis (1-4 weeks): Fix critical issues blocking production

Key Questions:

• "Walk me through your last deployment"

• "Tell me about a recent bug that escaped to production"

• "If you could fix one thing, what would it be?" </default_to_action>

Quick Reference Card

The Consulting Process

Phase Duration Goal Deliverable

Discovery Week 1-2 Understand context Interview notes, observations

Analysis Week 2-3 Identify root causes Impact/effort matrix

Recommendations Week 3-4 Present findings Report with roadmap

Implementation Month 2-6+ Execute changes Working system, trained team

Transition Final month Ensure self-sufficiency Handover docs

Impact/Effort Matrix

Priority What Action

High Impact, Low Effort Quick wins Do first

High Impact, High Effort Major initiatives Plan carefully

Low Impact, Low Effort Nice-to-haves If time permits

Low Impact, High Effort Distractions Skip

Common Patterns

"We Need Test Automation"

What they say: "We need test automation" What they mean: "Manual testing is too slow/expensive"

Discovery: How long is regression? What's deployment frequency?

Typical Finding: They need faster feedback, not "automation"

Recommendation:

• Unit tests for new code (TDD)

• Smoke tests for critical paths

• Keep exploratory for discovery

• Build automation incrementally

"Fix Our Quality Problem"

What they say: "We have too many bugs" What they mean: "Something is broken but we don't know what"

Discovery: Where found? What types? When introduced?

Typical Finding: No test strategy, testing too late, poor feedback loops

Recommendation:

• Shift testing left

• Improve coverage on critical paths

• Speed up CI/CD feedback

• Better requirements/acceptance criteria

"We Want to Scale Quality"

What they say: "Growing fast, quality can't keep up" What they mean: "Can't hire enough QA fast enough"

Discovery: Current QA:Dev ratio? Where's QA spending time?

Typical Finding: QA is bottleneck - manual regression, gatekeeping

Recommendation:

• Make QA strategic, not tactical

• Developers own test automation

• QA focuses on exploratory, risk analysis

• Use agentic approaches for scale

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern Problem Better

Cookie-Cutter Same solution everywhere Context-specific recommendations

Tool Pusher Recommend expensive tools Tools that solve actual problems

Process Nazi Impose rigid process Lightweight, fits their culture

Permanent Fixture Never leave, create dependency Work toward them not needing you

Blame Game Point fingers at people Fix systems, not blame people

Difficult Situations

"We already tried that" → "Tell me what you tried and what didn't work" (learn from their experience)

"Our context is special" → "Help me understand what makes yours special" (they might be right, or making excuses)

"We don't have budget/time" → "What's the cost of not fixing this? Let's start small" (show ROI)

"That won't work here" → "What specific constraints? Let's adapt" (find what WILL work)

Agent Integration

// Automated codebase assessment const assessment = await Task("Assess Codebase", { scope: 'client-project/', depth: 'comprehensive', reportFormat: 'executive-summary' }, "qe-quality-analyzer");

// Returns: { qualityScore, testCoverage, technicalDebt, recommendations }

// ROI analysis for quality initiatives const roi = await Task("Calculate ROI", { currentState: { defectEscapeRate: 0.15, mttr: 48 }, proposedImprovements: ['test-automation', 'ci-cd-pipeline'], timeframe: '6-months' }, "qe-quality-analyzer");

// Returns: { estimatedCost, estimatedSavings, paybackPeriod }

Agent Coordination Hints

Memory Namespace

aqe/consultancy/ ├── assessments/* - Client assessments ├── recommendations/* - Prioritized recommendations ├── roi-analysis/* - ROI calculations └── progress/* - Implementation tracking

Fleet Coordination

const consultingFleet = await FleetManager.coordinate({ strategy: 'client-engagement', agents: [ 'qe-quality-analyzer', // Assess current state 'qe-regression-risk-analyzer', // Risk assessment 'qe-quality-gate', // Define quality gates 'qe-deployment-readiness' // Deployment maturity ], topology: 'hierarchical' });

Related Skills

• quality-metrics - Metrics for client reporting

• risk-based-testing - Client risk assessment

• holistic-testing-pact - Comprehensive strategy

Remember

Good consulting is about empowering teams, not creating dependency. Your success is measured by them not needing you anymore - while still wanting to work with you again.

Best compliment: "We've got this now, but when we tackle X next year, we're calling you."

Be honest. Be helpful. Be context-driven. Leave them better.