Fundamental differences

Techies and business consultants don't get along.

There. I've said it.

When it comes down to it, consultants are supposed to know a lot about a lot of different aspects in the workplace. In IT projects it means consultants should know about the client expectations, profit margins, work estimations, deadlines, requirements, business processes... and the IT systems. That's a whole lot to do. They've got a lot of responsibility, because a lot of people attribute it to them.

In IT projects techies are usually subject matter experts, the workhorses who operate the buttons, make the code. Occasionally they're even the artists, working magic, where magic has no business of being there. But their scope is limited. Whether they want to or not, they are hardly responsible for anything other than the system.

Usually consultants have too much on their plates to be experts at anything, so models, tools and methodologies have been created to streamline their activities across all areas. And rightly so. However IT is a business where there is no standardized way of working. In fact there may never be, because IT moves so fast. Techies have a hard time dealing with it themselves, so they need to train, read up, go to conferences and workshops.

What chance do consultants have then? They're responsible for something that they essentially have little to no control over. The only way to gain a modicum of control is to utilize outdated methodologies, or models which have no real practical application in IT. And that insults the tech experts.

The tragic thing is that consultants and techies know that a better way to work exists, but everybody is too driven by other factors to actually do something about it, be it deadlines, peer pressure, contract disputes and so on.

And so the conflict continues.