IT, We Have A Problem!

The article recounts the author's experiencing of being a substitute instructor for two sections of a class in the professional MBA program of a certain university in the U.S. The class is called "Management of Information Systems Technology." The author considered the job as an opportunity for him to clarify issues in IT project management. Among the topics he discussed with his first class were the definition of system requirements, the intention of IT to satisfy the users, and the life cycle of the project development. In his second session, he discussed the need for collaboration between IT and the users. He relates his disappointment with the class when he found that the students were still confused about the role of users in IT project management.