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You've Got A Lotta 'Splainin To Do

I understand the very broad strokes of what server virtualization is and how it works, or at least I thought I did. But I began blinking really hard when IT Guy started explaining about virtual NIC cards and virtual printer drivers. Turns out--and this is true--that 'pretend' servers have other 'pretend' gizmos to help them out. Kind of like your kid having a make-believe friend who has other make-believe friends. You don't see any of them, but you know they're there because other people are talking to them. (I suggested to IT Guy that he use this analogy during his presentation, but for some reason he didn't think his top execs would find it all that illuminating.)

But my point is this: if IT professionals and their groupies have trouble explaining ourselves to each other, how can we expect business executives to follow the bouncing ball? Because you know that when you're talking tech with most business types, they're really thinking about how to get their merchandise from the assembly line to their distributor in Japan--or whatever their big problem of the day is.

Back in the day, things were difficult to grasp because it was all so new. When I first began reporting in the tech industry, 20-something years ago, I had never before heard the term 'software.' (And this is also true: I went to my local hardware store, hoping to find some. The nice people there had never heard of it either.)

Now here we are all these years later, and most execs have the basics down (or at least I hope they do). But with these more advanced concepts like virtualization, self-healing systems, and the like comes a requirement to work even harder to help the business folks understand what we're talking about. Because if they don't get it, there's no way they're going to fund it.

IT benefit is about more than religious-type faith. Everyone in this business knows that. But it takes a particular skill set to successfully explain the technology in a way that makes clear what the technology is and why it's a good thing for the business so the people holding the purse strings will buy in.

The longer I'm at this, the more I'm convinced that lack of communication is at the heart of the chasm that has always existed between IT and business people. I’m not blaming IT-ers for the existence of this problem, of course, but I am saying that you can go a long way toward fixing the problem. And if you don't do it, nobody will.

Nobody else *can* do it, either. The more complex the technology, and the more interwoven the pieces, the more we need people who know how to 'translate tech' into language the rest of the world can understand. Most business folks don't or can't speak tech, but ITers can certainly speak business.

What do you think? Do you have any funny or disastrous stories of miscommunication between IT and the business side? Leave your comments below.

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