What to define before starting an IT consultancy engagement

State the business outcome

Describe the decision or improvement the organisation needs, not only the technology name that happens to be involved.

List the current environment

Give enough context about systems, users, integrations, suppliers and constraints for the starting point to be understood.

Separate facts from assumptions

Document what is known, what is suspected and what still needs investigation. That distinction prevents early assumptions from becoming hidden requirements.

Name the decision-makers

Consulting work moves faster when the people who can approve scope, priorities and trade-offs are known from the start.

Agree the expected output

A roadmap, architecture, options paper, implementation plan and technical review are different deliverables. Define which output is actually useful.