IT speaks in systems, constraints, and timelines. The business speaks in outcomes, urgency, and exceptions. Both are right. The problem is the translation layer between them.
Often not because the business changed its mind, but because what was agreed at the start did not reflect what was actually needed.
The system was built to spec. But the spec was a proxy for the real need, not the real need itself. The team works around it.
When IT cannot say no without escalation, everything becomes urgent. When everything is urgent, nothing is prioritised well.
The work is not about improving communication. It is about building the structure that makes alignment the default.
Not just technical completion, but the business outcome that the work is meant to produce. Agreed before development starts.
Someone whose job is to make sure IT understands the real need, and the business understands the constraints. Not to escalate when things go wrong, but to prevent them going wrong.
Short checkpoints where the business can see what is being built, before it is too late to redirect. Not heavy governance, just visibility.
If development consistently delivers something close to what was needed but not quite, or if the same clarification conversations happen every project, that pattern is worth a conversation.
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