How to organize workstreams in a consulting engagement?

Boston Consulting Group management McKinsey
Recent activity on Aug 09, 2018
2 Answers
5.9 k Views
Anonymous A asked on Aug 08, 2018

What aspects should I take into consideration?

How are workstreams organized in an engagement?

I would love to see an example!

Thanks!

Overview of answers

Upvotes
  • Upvotes
  • Date ascending
  • Date descending
Best answer
Benjamin
Expert
replied on Aug 08, 2018
ex-Manager - Natural and challenging teacher - Taylor case solving, no framework

Hi,
The best proxy of workstream organisation is the structuring of the case interview.
The workstream organization is performed by the manager, who will break down the initial engagment into multiple independant workstreams. This is a key work that will condition the futur success of the team :

- Independant : each workstream is independant. It can ben conducted by one or several consultants and have interactions with the other workstream, but it has it's own deliverables

- Exhaustive : all together the work stream cover the whole scope of the engagement

- proper size : we foster simplicity and try to create workstream with the right size (not too small, not to big) so it can be manager by a workstream leader

Hope this helps
Best
Benjamin

Was this answer helpful?
Vlad
Expert
replied on Aug 09, 2018
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

Agree with Benjamin.

However, the workstreams very often may be structured by client assets / products or just by the scope of the project / client needs. Also, the number of people depends on the budget and often has low correlation with a scope (especially for the new clients). Here are some examples from the real projects:

  • Cost-cutting at the store area / cost-cutting at the warehouse / cost-cutting at HQ / omni-channel strategy
  • Due diligence of asset 1/ due diligence of asset 2 / synergies calculation
  • Sales strategy of a corporate bank / creating a transaction banking department

As you can see very often it's more than just one problem / area. In order to cover the needs of the projects, very often MBB companies use interns / part-time help / etc who can take the whole streams.

Best

Was this answer helpful?
Benjamin gave the best answer

Benjamin

ex-Manager - Natural and challenging teacher - Taylor case solving, no framework
55
Meetings
546
Q&A Upvotes
17
Awards
5.0
30 Reviews
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or fellow student?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 = Not likely
10 = Very likely