A new approach to projects or a new tool is not a quick fix or a silver bullet. Too often, you have ingrained, systemic problems that require a cultural change. That doesn’t mean a new approach or a new tool won’t help. It can. But you also need to adjust the environment that caused the problems in the first place.

Companies are becoming more dependent on their IT departments to not only process project request offers, but also be a strategic partner in developing complex, financially sound plans to achieve specific business outcomes. That said, why is IT so hesitant to tell the business what something will cost?

It is unfortunate that the department attending to employees is called “Human Resources.” That language colors what managers call people in the organization. But the more you call people “resources,” the more they become interchangeable—and more like desks, or infrastructure, or something that is easily negotiable. Resources are not people. People are not resources.

Whether they're on the business side or the IT side, professionals in the software industry tend to agree that more communication about project expectations is needed. So why is it that when the two sides collaborate, bad things seem to happen? Ryan McClish and Kenton Bohn analyze the human dynamics and show how to build a solution that accomplishes the defined goals.