I usually work as a retained consultant performing some or all of the following: Conducting technical due diligence (see generic template); Advising senior technology executives or management teams on the most pressing product management and engineering issues with which they must deal; Assisting Product Management in planning new products by helping them form a basis of functional requirements, prioritizing them, working with both Product Management and Engineering to determine technical feasibility, constructing product roadmaps and project plans, helping to identify where distributed team development might be of benefit and determining how to manage external vendors, and establishing program management - spending one or more days each month to work new issues and perform periodic status reviews; Helping management and technology teams understand Web Services-based architectures and Web services technologies by helping them assess current application and technology architectures as they would be impacted by Web Services, and understanding the relating impact at business operational and technology levels that Web Services will have; Measuring success. Working with senior management teams to help them engage in product steering and program management processes so they can identify key performance metrics and drive their organizations to become cultures based on accomplishment; and Architecting and developing software. Working with technology teams to architect and develop software products, and to perform systems integration and other technology project work.