Abstract

Information technologists today are faced with the challenge of becoming better corporate communicators. As the contemporary trend of business and IT alignment continues, executives must strive to get IT and business management on the same team. An engineering graduate is expected to be both competent and professional. Yet, a modern IT professional must also possess strategic thinking capabilities, with the ability to connect with businesses and nontechnical persons. Disconnects between IT and business are often accepted as a part of working relationship within any organization. Much of this disconnect can be attributed to the languages that the two use, and the underlying concepts that they understand. While an IT curriculum has placed great emphasis in the “how to do” detail and technical aspects of businesses, the real challenge confronting today’s IT engineer is an understanding of the “what to do” of businesses, the big picture and strategic aspects mindset of a nontechnical business manager.