Consulting Engagement Delivery Checklist Template

Phase 1: Mobilise & Frame the Question

Owned by the engagement manager. The three Yes/No scope questions show or hide the steering committee tasks in Phases 3 and 6, the reliance tasks in Phase 5 and the implementation task in Phase 6.

• Name the engagement partner, engagement manager and quality reviewer — later tasks are assigned from these fields; the reviewer is someone outside the delivery team
• Answer the scope questions — does the engagement include implementation support, is a steering committee in place, and will anyone other than the client rely on the deliverables
• Restate the client’s question in one sentence — the decision the sponsor has to make, agreed with them in writing
• Write the starting hypotheses — what the team thinks the answer might be, and what evidence would prove each one wrong
• Build the issue tree and workplan — each branch becomes an analysis with an owner and a date, traced to a deliverable in the SOW
• Brief the team on the method — which modules apply to this engagement, the templates to use and how this client likes to work

Phase 2: Discovery & Diagnostic

• Run the stakeholder interviews — from a standard guide, with notes written up within a day and themes tagged
• Collect and validate the data — check completeness and definitions with each data owner before analysing, and log the gaps
• Map the current state — processes, costs, systems and organisation as they really work, not as the policy says
• Benchmark where it helps — across the client’s own sites or units first, external data only with its source recorded
• Test each hypothesis against the evidence — keep, revise or drop it, and record why
• Play back the diagnostic to the sponsor — findings before any recommendation, so nothing in the final meeting is a surprise

Phase 3: Analysis & Options

The steering committee task is shown only when a steering committee is in place.

• Size the problem or opportunity — in the client’s own numbers, with every assumption listed
• Generate the options — including doing nothing and the option the client already favours
• Agree the evaluation criteria with the sponsor — before scoring, so the criteria are not fitted to the answer
• Assess each option — benefits, cost, risk, feasibility and time to impact, on one page
• Take the emerging options to the steering committee — for direction on which to develop, not for a final decision
• Log scope changes — anything outside the SOW goes through the change process before work on it starts

Phase 4: Recommendations & Validation

• Write the recommendation answer first — the main conclusion, then the supporting arguments, then the evidence
• Pre-wire the key stakeholders one by one — walk each through the findings that affect them before the group meeting
• Pressure-test the numbers with the client’s finance team — they will be asked to defend them after you leave
• Draft the implementation roadmap — sequence, owners, quick wins, dependencies and cost
• Record disagreements and how they were handled — who disagreed, on what, and what changed as a result

Phase 5: Quality Review

The two reliance tasks are shown only when someone other than the client will rely on the deliverables. The quality reviewer’s approval (Approved / Not approved) halts the checklist; nothing goes to the client until it is Approved.

• Trace every number to its source — and check that figures agree between the report, the slides and the appendix
• Check the deliverables against the SOW — everything promised is there and meets the acceptance criteria
• Check confidentiality — no other client’s names or data, and this client’s data only where it may be shown
• Check the reliance and limitation wording — who may rely on the report and for what purpose, consistent with the contract’s liability terms
• Issue reliance letters only on agreed terms — reviewed by legal and signed by the engagement partner, never by the team
• Quality reviewer approval of the deliverables — reviewer comments and the team’s responses attached

Phase 6: Present & Accept

The steering committee task is shown only when a steering committee is in place; the implementation task only when the engagement includes implementation support. The client’s acceptance is a recorded task, not a CheckFlow approval, because the sponsor is outside the firm.

• Present to the steering committee for decision — with the decisions needed written on the first page
• Hold the final presentation with the sponsor — ask explicitly for each decision the client needs to make
• Record the client sponsor’s acceptance — against the SOW acceptance criteria, with the email or signed form attached
• Hand each roadmap action to a named client owner — so the recommendation does not depend on the consultants staying
• Agree the implementation support plan — scope, people, duration and success measures, under a new SOW or change order if needed
• Raise the final invoice — on the payment milestone tied to acceptance