Definition

Consulting is a time-based support activity about a situation or a problem offered to another DARIAH member or the DARIAH community. This may cover advice including audit, design or other activities where expertise support and knowledge transfer form the basis of the service.

Enterprise Viewpoint

The following communities have been identified as part of the Consulting Community:

  • Consultancy Provider Community: the community which legally provides the consultancy activity. It holds the expertise to provide and perform it.
  • Consultancy Receiver Community: the community requesting consultancy and receiving it.

Consulting Roles

  • Consultancy Provider (active role): the agent who legally provides the consultancy activity (e.g. institution)
  • Consultancy Implementer (active role): the agent who performs the consultancy activity
  • Consultancy Consumer (active role): subject of the consultancy: the agent who instantiates the request for an activity and receives the outcome of the activity.
  • Consultancy Provision Subsystem (passive): The community component that represents the community as a whole.

Consulting Behaviours

  • Consultancy Management: the behaviour of the Consultancy Provider, who overviews the running of the consultancy activity, and ensures the transfer of knowledge.
  • Consultancy Support: the behaviour of the Consultancy Implementer, providing expertise
  • Consultancy Execution: the behaviour of a number of agents (Consultancy Provider, Consultancy Implementer) performing certain actions in the context of consulting.

Information Viewpoint

Data

  • Raw Data notes
  • Documentation: procedure, list of documents used for the planning and execution of the consultancy
  • Report: official output resulting of the consultancy

Agents

  • Consultancy Provider: the agent who legally provides the consultancy activity (e.g. institution)
  • Consultancy Implementer: the agent who performs the consultancy activity
  • Consultancy Receiver: subject of the consultancy: the agent who instantiates the request for an activity and receives the outcome of the activity.

Services

  • Support of communication: external (DARIAH website), internal (team collaboration software such as Confluence Wiki, Basecamp)

Contracts

  • Very important in this type of in-kind is in fact the agreement and contract side of the consultancy, which is essential to stipulate the detail of the performance, e.g. whether the consultancy is for free or not, how long will it be etc.
Case Study - CoreTrustSeal Consultancy
The CoreTrustSeal announces Guidelines that are of interest to data producers and institutions that create digital data, to organisations that archive data, and to consumers of data. The objectives of the CoreTrustSeal are to safeguard data, to ensure high quality and to guide reliable management of data for the future without requiring the implementation of new standards, regulations or high costs. An institution requests consultancy from DANS on how to obtain the CoreTrustSeal certification. This institution requiring consultancy is the Consultancy Receiver Community. DANS represents the Consultancy Provider Community. As the institution providing consultancy, DANS is the Consultancy Provider. The institution receiving consultancy is the Consultancy Receiver.