I think everyone remembers being a kid at the big Thanksgiving or some other family get together. It is pretty common for the adults to sit at one table and the kids to sit at another table. I always wanted to sit at the table with the adults, but my grandmother told me I could sit at the adult table only if I acted like one.

Today the core business is at the adult table, and software development is at the kid’s table. Why would the CIO be invited to the table with the business if he and his staff have little or no knowledge about the core business? Better yet, the software developers have no desire to learn about core business. For the most part software developers do not study their customers, the core business or their competition. If software development does not understand the core business, how is it possible to understand what functionality needs to be included or not included in any project, upgrade, or release.