CSC Professional Standards & Best Practices 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A senior consultant discovers that a client's internal champion is misrepresenting project progress to senior executives. What is the most appropriate first step?
- Immediately report the misrepresentation to senior executives
- Document the discrepancy and have a private conversation with the champion first (Correct answer)
- Ignore it since internal politics are the client's responsibility
- Escalate to your firm's engagement partner without informing the client
Correct answer: Document the discrepancy and have a private conversation with the champion first
Raising concerns privately with the client champion first preserves the relationship and gives them an opportunity to correct the situation before escalation becomes necessary.
Question 2: Which documentation practice best supports knowledge transfer at the conclusion of a consulting engagement?
- Providing only executive summary deliverables to keep documents concise
- Creating detailed runbooks with step-by-step processes tied to specific team roles (Correct answer)
- Storing all working files on the consulting firm's servers for future reference
- Verbally briefing the client team on key findings during the final presentation
Correct answer: Creating detailed runbooks with step-by-step processes tied to specific team roles
Detailed runbooks tied to client roles ensure the client team can independently execute processes after the engagement ends.
Question 3: When billing a client for travel time, a senior consultant should adhere to which standard practice?
- Bill all travel time at the full consulting rate regardless of work performed
- Bill only productive work performed during travel, not transit time itself
- Follow the engagement letter's specific terms regarding travel billing (Correct answer)
- Never bill for travel time as it is considered overhead
Correct answer: Follow the engagement letter's specific terms regarding travel billing
The engagement letter establishes the contractual terms for billing, including travel time policies, and must be followed to avoid disputes.
Question 4: A consultant is asked to provide a reference for a former client who was dissatisfied with the engagement outcome. The best approach is to:
- Decline to provide the reference and explain you cannot speak positively about the experience
- Provide an honest, balanced reference that focuses on factual scope and deliverables (Correct answer)
- Provide a positive reference to maintain the relationship despite the poor outcome
- Redirect the inquirer to your firm's marketing team to handle the reference
Correct answer: Provide an honest, balanced reference that focuses on factual scope and deliverables
Professional standards require honest and factual references; misrepresenting an engagement's outcome exposes the consultant to ethical and legal risk.
Question 5: Under professional best practices, what is the recommended approach when a client requests a significant scope change mid-engagement?
- Absorb the additional work to maintain client satisfaction and avoid conflict
- Issue a formal change order documenting the new scope, timeline, and cost before proceeding (Correct answer)
- Complete the original scope first, then negotiate the additional work as a new engagement
- Delegate the additional work to junior staff to manage timeline impact
Correct answer: Issue a formal change order documenting the new scope, timeline, and cost before proceeding
A formal change order protects both parties by clearly documenting agreed-upon changes to scope, schedule, and fees before work begins.
Question 6: A senior consultant notices a team member consistently taking credit for work performed by junior staff in client meetings. This behavior should be addressed because it:
- Violates team norms but is acceptable if the client relationship benefits
- Undermines junior staff development and violates professional integrity standards (Correct answer)
- Is standard practice in consulting to present unified team messaging to clients
- Only matters if the junior staff members formally complain
Correct answer: Undermines junior staff development and violates professional integrity standards
Professional integrity standards require accurate attribution of work, and failure to credit junior contributors undermines their development and team trust.
Question 7: When presenting a recommendation that the client's leadership team is likely to resist, a senior consultant should:
- Soften the recommendation to increase acceptance probability
- Present only the parts of the recommendation the client will agree with
- Deliver the full recommendation with supporting evidence and acknowledge anticipated concerns proactively (Correct answer)
- Wait until the resistance subsides before presenting the complete findings
Correct answer: Deliver the full recommendation with supporting evidence and acknowledge anticipated concerns proactively
Senior consultants are obligated to deliver complete, evidence-based recommendations even when unwelcome, while proactively addressing expected objections.
CSC Professional Standards & Best Practices 2
A senior consultant discovers that a client's internal champion is misrepresenting project progress to senior executives.
What is the most appropriate first step?