I agree that many IT people do not understand the operational business subject matter, and as I implied good quality communication is essential in any relationship.

And I also agree that one cannot "...just walk in, spend three hours (if that long) talking (listening?) to someone in these departments once a month (year is more likely) and assume you have any clue about what it takes to do their jobs successfully. Yet, that is exactly what many IT people do..."; then again - I never said that either.

So you're setting up a straw man, here.

I, for one, always have endeavored to learn as much as I can about the business and apply that knowledge, but many times - other OBU managers and workers resist attempts to explain processes to IT out of some strange territorialism, perhaps because they, too, fear change (for various reasons).

And I do agree with you that spending time actually doing some or all of the work in a department can be helpful but (oh) try to get management to agree to that! There are, however, analysis techniques that one can use to glean the necessary insights into inter-departmental operations for system design and support that can be helpful.

Finally, I was not complaining, per se, and did not mean to say or imply that "Nobody understands IT"; only that there is general ignorance about IT among the OBU, in spite of our best attempts (at times) to help the rest of the organization better understand IT .

But again - I agree with your premise that it DOES work both ways.

Thanks.