By Caryn Maresic, Senior Consultant

Julia’s parents were planning a vacation.   Her mother thought Pensacola would be a great destination—she’s heard so much about the wildlife, especially the dolphins!   Her father wants to see the National Naval Aviation Museum and the Blue Angels.   Since Julia’s traveled extensively, her parents asked her to make all the arrangements.   While having dinner with them to discuss plans, she jotted down the following notes:

• Location:   Moderately-priced hotel close to water/sights.


• Budget: $3,000 for transportation and accommodations.


• Activities:   Beach and nature activities (Mom), science/historic sights (Dad)


• Duration: 10 days.

Julia felt honored that her parents trusted her to get the job done.   After doing some online research, she made all the reservations and met with her parents to review the reservations.   She eagerly awaited the look on her parents’ faces as they scanned the vacation itinerary and read through the glossy brochures.

”Hawaii?”, they said in unison.   ”We didn’t want to go to Hawaii!"

"Honey, we chose Florida because we can drive there.   I don’t want to fly anymore.   Flying is such a pain,” Dad grumbled.

”I appreciate what you’ve done, Julia, but an old friend of mine lives near Pensacola and I was hoping to visit while we were there.” said Mom.

”But, Mom!”, exclaimed Julia, ”You said you wanted beaches, dolphins, sunny weather.   Dad, you like science and history—what about Pearl Harbor?   You two can’t go to the gulf coast—what about the oil spill?”

What happened here is typical of what happens to IT projects all the time.   It’s easy to say that we wouldn’t do what Julia did.   Would we?   Don’t we oftentimes:

• Interview the business and record the requirements in an abstract way.


• Believe that the we can deliver something better than what the business asked for.


• Assume that the business lacks the capability to understand the technology.


• Fail to get all of the requirements.   Not exactly our fault, but still a problem.


• Neglect to keep the business involved in the process.

There has been a lot of buzz on IT-Business alignment of late, including this article on some specific companies that are going the extra mile: Beyond Alignment—as well as this one on lack of user involvement: Why IT Projects Fail: Lack of User Involvement.   Most companies aren’t as progressive.   The willingness to work together has to occur at all levels. Only when we let them drive can we deliver, if not what they asked for, then at least something useful.

photo by stevendepolo via Flickr (Creative Commons license)

Caryn has over 20 years experience in providing high-quality data
solutions to clients in the areas of Business Intelligence, Data
Warehousing and System Integration.   Caryn has expertise in across
industries with an emphasis in Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, and
Insurance.   Prior to joining to Baseline, she ran her own consulting
company.