'Pulling' Requirements From the Suits

This article talks about something that I've learned by myself the hard way: in order to build the proper functionality for a system, the IT staff has to fully understand the business concepts of the problem the system is trying to solve.
Even if the so called Specifications / requirements, etc… were provided and no matter how detailed were these, the IT department finds itself in the position of searching and extracting several business elements, some of them quite complex and well hidden, but most of them obvious but omitted initially.
IT staff will have to be involved and qualified in the business area, too, or at lease fully qualified into understanding the business concepts. Quoting from this article: “The head of IT, regardless of role, must combine strategic direction with strong facilitation and communication skills.”

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/cio/article.php/3502551