“IT IMPACTS”

IT professionals often fail to communicate effectively with their non-IT counterparts. As IT professionals, we need to talk about technology in terms that the non-IT person can understand. Several years ago, I watched a group of IT people make a business case for a productivity tool investment for the programmers in IT. The idea was good and the technology sound. It was clearly a cost-justified acquisition with a valid justification; however, the justification was a little too clever for its own good.

The proposal required the approval of the Senior Vice-President over IT. The Senior Vice-President was not a technologist. This group of IT people took their proposal to the Senior Vice-President and made the necessary presentation to obtain his approval. However, rather than saying it would increase programmer productivity by 25% and would pay for itself in a specified timeframe, they proudly informed him that it would add 56 virtual programmers to the staff.

The Senior Vice-President reflected on the proposal for a few moments before he asked the group one question.

“Where will all those new programmers sit?”

Surprised by the question, the IT group proceeded to remake the very same presentation, again concluding with the arrival of 56 brand-new virtual programmers. They collectively sat back, confident that this time the point had been successfully made. They only needed his signature to move forward.

The Senior Vice-President looked at them, shook his head, and said, “I understood all of that the first time. You still haven’t answered my question. Where will all these new people sit?”

The meeting ended without the desired approval. The Senior Vice-President was obviously puzzled why these people could not provide him with an answer to a basic and simple question. The IT people left thinking—well, I’m sure you can fill in the blanks. Where was the failure?

As that infamous line from the movie Cool Hand Luke relates, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” The obvious moral to the story is to know your audience and talk to them in their terms, on some common ground, in language that they can understand. While the justification made perfect sense to the IT folk, it was not in appropriate terms for the decision maker. We run into the need for clear communication with the business in many of the things we do in IT. Don’t fall in love with technical cleverness. We must learn to speak to the business in the language of business.