In the previous sections, we looked at who a consultant is and the importance of being one. In this section, we will look at the difference between a developer and a consultant.

Being a consultant is a natural progression for a developer. It is always good to start your analytical journey by being a developer. In the lifecycle of a developer, one gets to learn the technical aspects of Business Intelligence(BI). A strong technology base is a very critical aspect that makes a developer a good developer. This phase exposes the developer to the execution phase of the project.

Let's say someone is planning to build a great building. He/she may hire the best of the people to build it and the people may put in their best efforts for that. A lot of time, effort, and money will be spent for this building to come up. It will take years for this effort and the building will be built. But when it’s time to occupy the building, the person may realize that there are a lot of design flaws which make the building difficult to use. The people who moved in will then slowly start moving out, simply because it's tough for them to live there.

This analogy holds true for many BI projects, where huge investments are made and the best of developers are hired, but the adoption of software is not up to the mark. The reasons could be many but the situation is certainly not the ideal one.

For a moment, in the preceding example, let’s say the person hires a fantastic architect. The architect spends a lot of time to understand what the person expects from the building, what purpose it is meant for, who the people are who will be living there, and what kind of lifestyle they will expect.

He/she then starts working on a detailed plan, going in to the minutest details of planning everything, such as the depth of the foundation, the number of gates in the building, the location and size of car parking, the number of elevators, the size of apartments, safety measures, and all other important aspects.

Now, when this meticulous planning is executed by a a set of experienced people, the result will be amazing, won't it? The project is bound to be successful and will deserve all the applause and accolades.

No doubt, a developer is an important part of a BI project; it’s important that the direction is right. Hence, it’s imperative that a developer, after a certain years of development experience, transitions himself/herself in to being a consultant. This is the precise reason why we are writing this book for budding developers--to help them move into a consultant role and contribute to and own project success.