Interview Notes

Know what the organization is looking for and be ready:

Focus on providing clear, concise, and persuasive discussions during the case
interview.
Be engaging and interactive with your interviewers. (If you arent having fun, they
arent having fun).
Quickly and efficiently understand the problem, state your hypothesis, and work
through the details in logical manner.

Know the company and practice you are interviewing for, and why you are a unique
fit for Deloitte:
Be familiar with the Technology practice at Deloitte and our service lines, along with
recent publications and/or spotlights.
o Human Capital
o Strategy and Operations
o Technology
Analytics and Information Management: build and run insight
driven organizations by helping to maximize the potential value of
analytics and information to deliver operational excellence, new
products and services, competitive agility, and growth.
Shape Strategy
Manage Data
Deliver Information
Improve Performance
Optimize Insights
Amplify Intelligence
Build Capabilities: change mgmt. & program mgmt.
Manage Environments
Application Management Services: provide flexible structure that
enables you to fine tune application management services to your IT
and business objectives.
AMS digital
AMS enterprise resource planning
AMS information management
AMS systems integration
Deloitte Digital: inspire customers to engage, choose, and stay loyal
to your brand. Offer the creative and digital capabilities you need to
reimagine your business vision and drive the bottom-line results you
need.
Disruptive Advantage starts here
Oracle: knowledge across Oracle applications and technology to help
implement solutions that can help your company drive revenue
growth and improve operating margins.
Application upgrades
 Finance transformation
Product lifecycle management
SolutionPrint pre-configured solutions
Supply Chain Management
Technology services
Value Chain execution
SAP: implementation focuses on an end result that supports business
strategies through process improvement, technology innovation and
enablement of people.
Systems Integration: manage the complexity inherent with
technology change, from requirements planning to architecture,
testing to deployment.
Program management, functional and testing services
Solution and platform integration
Systems development
Technology Strategy and Architecture: develop strategies and
implement system that build business value and drive performance.
Cloud advisory, implementation, and hosting services
IT business management
IT mergers & acquisitions
IT strategy
Technology infrastructure transformation
Technology Offerings: Transforming business with technology
Be able to clearly articulate why you are interested in pursuing a career as a
technologist at Deloitte and how your experiences would make you a good fit for the
program.
Business Technology Analyst: Make a real difference
o Help the client in their efforts to create and implement effective business
solutions that can help improve their company's business performance and
value.
o Gain exposure to a diverse set of industries, clients, and project roles. In
addition, you can contribute by assisting in the development of project
proposals, presentations, and industry publications.

Practice Practice Practice!

Simulation is the best way to be prepared for both behavioral and case
interviews. A number of practice cases are available online via our Interactive Case
Prep Tool.
Preparing for the Case Interview
Practice with your classmates as if you are in a client meeting and be prepared to
answer questions as you are working through the case.
Use frameworks in an intelligent manner - do not simply use a basic framework to
crack a case. Instead, use the frameworks as a way to logically work through a case.

Know your story:

 Why you have chosen your current academic focus and experiences thus far
Why you want be a technology consultant
Why Deloitte
How your experiences lend themselves to consulting and the business technology
analyst program

Be Prepared:
Have 2-3 genuine questions ready to ask your interviewer.
o Could you tell me more about Deloittes Graduate School Assistant Program?
o Could you describe for me the company culture at Deloitte?
Are there any types of mentorships?
o As you could tell, Im very involved in SWE and promoting diversity in
engineering. Could you tell me of any programs or ways that Deloitte makes
an effort into causes like this?
Reach out to alums within the firm to get a better understanding of how you can
contribute to Deloitte.

Case Study 1: IT Strategy - System Development Case

ITIL: Information Technology Infrastructure Library
Follow these rules to run IT > IT is there to support the business.
o IT is there to make sure that the business can do their job.
o Importance of understanding how IT can support the business.
If SAP goes down for a day, you lose a day worth of productivity.

Business Situation
Company ABC is considering migrating from an old transaction processing system to a new
state-of-the-art custom developed solution. They have asked you to help them understand
how to approach the project. They understand that there are multiple vendors/application
within the market that can potentially help them, but they are unsure if the best approach
is to go with one of these systems or with a homegrown tool.

Key Information includes:

The new application will need to interface with multiple legacy applications to get
data in real-time for transaction processing. However, ABC believes they did not
have the infrastructure in place to support any real-time data processing at this
point in time.
ABS is currently an Oracle Shop, using Oracle solutions for various backend
processes. How would this impact this project?
The application has both user interface (UI) components as well as batch processing
components.
Application performance is of very high concern. The batch processing needs to be
completed within very tight windows.
 The application will be rolled out in a single release on the deployment date.

Question One
How would you explain the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) approach in
general and what are the different phases?

Good Answer
A good answer will include a description such as a linear sequence of stages to develop a
system from planning to analysis to design to implementation. The phases include:
Project identification and selection
Project initiation and planning
Analysis
Design
Implementation
Maintenance

Great Answer
A great answer will point out that the stages are followed from beginning to end and that
revisiting prior stage is not permitted and explain that the phases have overlap, i.e. Design
of certain areas will begin while others are still Analysis, but ideally there should be no
backward movement in the Life Cycle.

Question Two
Why is the following an SDLC important?

Good Answer
A good answer will show basic understanding and include that having a SDLC facilitates
thorough project planning and execution and its intended to develop information systems
in a very deliberate, structure and methodical way.

Great Answer
A great answer wills how deeper understanding and also include that SDLC brings
discipline, rigor, and order to the implementation of complex projects, while facilitating
strong knowledge transfer to our clients. Using SDLC will result in a high quality system
that meets or exceeds customer expectations, reaches completion within time and cost
estimates, and works effectively and efficiently in the current and planned technology
infrastructure.

Question Three
What is involved in each phase of the SDLC?

Good Answer
A good answer will point out some key activities in each phase:
Project identification and selection
 o Identification of need for new transaction system
o Prioritization and translation of need into a development schedule (timeline)
o Helps organization to determine whether or not resources should be
dedicated to the project
Project Initiation and Planning
o Formal preliminary investigation of the problem at hand, deployment of a
new system
o Presentation of reasons why system should or should not be developed by
the organization
Analysis
o Study of current procedures and information systems
Determine Requirements
o Study current system (limitations and abilities)
o Structure requirements and eliminate redundancies
o Generate alternate designs
o Compare alternatives (stay with old vs. develop new, custom solution, in
house vs. outsource)
o Conduct vendor assessment if appropriate
o Recommend best alternative
Design
o Logical Design
Concentrates on business of the system, i.e. how the new system will
handle invoicing, billing the customer, showing revenue. Is the UI easy
to use, will the deployment date be met?
o Physical Design
Technical specifications performance is a big concern as the
interfaces to legacy systems
o Implementation (Develop)
Hardware and software installation
Programming
User training
Documentation
o Maintenance
System changed to reflect changing conditions, i.e., will the new
system be able to handle even more daily transactions in the future?
System obsolescence

Great Answer
A great answer will also include resource in addition to activities in each phase:
Project identification and selection
o Project managers
o Project leadership and sponsors
Project Initiation and Planning
o Project managers
o Project leadership
 o Subject matter experts
Analysis
o Functional Team
Determine Requirements
o Subject matter experts
o Function team
Design
o Subject matter experts
o Functional team
o Technical team
Implementation (Develop)
o Function team
o Technical team
o Change management team
o Trainers
o System developers
o Subject matter experts
Maintenance
o Technical team
o Change management team

Case Debrief
In general, the SDLC refer to a linear sequence of stages all systems naturally undergo. The
six distinct phases are: project identification and selection, project initiation and planning,
analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance. Examples of steps during each phase
include: identification of need, formal preliminary investigation of the problem at hand,
determines requirements, local design, implementation, and system change.

A strong candidate will:

Demonstrate understanding of the concept of SDLC.
Be able to explain each phase independently and how each phase relates to the
others.

Case Study 2:Technical - Implementation Strategy for

Point of Sale (POS) System
Business Situation
A major hospitality client has just completed the development and testing of a POS
application for its worldwide hotel chain. The client has retained Deloitte Consulting to
develop an implementation strategy. What process would you go through in developing
your implementation strategy, and what assumption would you make in preparing your
recommendation?

Key Issues included:

 The client is primarily considering a decision between a phased deployment across
various international regions, or a big bang approach that would simultaneously
update all the site concurrently
The client recently used a big bang strategy to deploy a customer service application
in all its hotels. This release did not go well due to poor training and lack of
adequate testing.
The hotel chain has recently made some acquisitions that will require some system
integration. These systems have some time-consuming manual operations they
would like improved when integrated.
The new systems contain functionality that must be implemented in the North
American Region within six month. Failure to do so would expose the client to
possible regulatory litigation.
Hotels are divided into regions as well as by service tiers:
o Service Tier 1 Luxury 4 and 5 star hotels catering to top executives and
other premium clientele.
o Service Tier 2 3 and 4 star hotel catering to business travelers, and
vacationers with moderate to high spending preferences.
o Service Tier 3 2 and 3 star hotels designed to meet the needs of the budget
market.
The Service Tier 1 hotels help to define the overall brand for the company, so
problems with customer service due to a system upgrade would be very damaging.
Service Tier 2 hotels are the largest source of revenue for the client.

Question One
What additional information would you seek from the client when developing the
implementation strategy?

Good Answer
A good answer will include information about the companys lessons learned about the
recent big bang deployment.

Great Answer
A great answer will also include information on logical market groupings based on user
base and system synergies to identify market or regions that can be implemented first, as
well as considerations of the impact of the recent acquisitions including the systems
affected, to understand if the POS implementation will interfere with the current ongoing
activities or if there are synergies that can be leveraged.

Question Two
What are the different implementation options that the client should consider?

Good Answer
A good answer would list the different approaches: Big Bang, Phased, or Pilot.

Great Answer
A great answer will include different implementation strategies and rationalize behind
choosing an option.
A Big Bang approach where all the hotels are updated simultaneously in a short
period of time.
A Phased approach by region, or Service Tier of hotel.
A Pilot approach where the application would be deployed in a small number of
hotels and contingent on a successful implementation, the application would be
deployed quickly in the remaining hotels.

Question Three
What are the benefits, disadvantages, and risks that stem from various options?

Good Answer
A good answer will include advantages, disadvantages, and risks of the options such as:
Big Bang this approach solves business issues quickly, however it also involves the
highest level of risk.
Phased this approach does not necessarily meet the business needs quickly,
however it is a safer approach. A use of this approach should include a discussion of
deploying by region or by Service Tier and the risks and disadvantages associated
with the various sub-divisions.
Pilot this approach is very much like the big bang approach, however it blunts
some of the risk by the use of a small deployment as a test of the system.

Great Answer
A great answer will include mitigations for the risks. For example, possible mitigation
strategies for the Big Bang approach could include ensuring proper training and testing.

Question Four
If the candidate opts for a phased approach by service tier, for what service tier
would he/she recommend implementing the application first?

Good Answer
A good answer will acknowledge that implementing the POS first for Service Tier 1 may not
be optimal since in case of a failure the image may undergo the most significant damage.

Great Answer
A great answer will recommend either Service Tier 2 or Service Tier 3 as the first
implementation along with the reasons for the choice.
Service Tier 2 voice the logic of realizing earlier benefits from upgrading the tier
that generates the most revenue.
Service Tier 3 express opting for a safe strategy where the upgrade is first tested
on the low revenue tiers where a failure will not significantly impact the brand
image.

Case Debrief
This is a standard implementation strategy case where it is important to understand the
clients needs and determine the best implementation options along associated risks and
mitigating actions.

A strong candidate will:

Probe the interviewer for additional information to assess client needs.
Consider all options and related advantages and disadvantages before selecting an
option.