Information Technology - Working with Business Professionals

IT professionals must know the business and work closely with users for optimal solutions.  This good article shares three areas of frequent failure.

Talking business: Three reasons why your opinion is being ignored
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=801

QUOTE: In my experience, among the reasons for the voice of IT to be ignored, there are three that transpire in most if not all cases:

-- Lack of business knowledge
-- Using the wrong language
-- Lack of assertiveness

IT leaders and their staff must act assertively, if their words are to have any weight, and establish themselves as the authority in all decision-making involving IT. They must work to address business problems and opportunities, looking at the business content and applying innovative solutions. They must educate their business counterparts on the new developments in the IT and explore their application together.