Consultants: Plan Before You Build

Once you've gathered requirements from the kickoff meeting and any additional discovery meetings, you move into the second phase, planning. This is where you break the work into phases or milestones, identify dependencies, and anticipate where scope might try to expand. I also recommend you build buffer time into your schedule. This way you can absorb the unknowns because something will change. It always does. You want to be flexible, but not at the expense of your margin.