As much as any part of your company that supports the key prongs of the corporate mission (deliver product, sell the product, support the product), IT is constantly on the hook to deliver more and more.  As I’ve written before, expectations are deservedly high, and getting higher all the time.  And when expectations are so high, and the stakes for success equally so, the possibilities for disappointment are numerous.

No one wants to be disappointed, and no one wants to disappoint.  Here’s how you, the business stakeholder, can help yourself and the company: don’t fall into the common traps with IT that will likely lead to you not getting what you really want.

Here comes a David Letterman list of these traps, consisting of only three items.  There are, of course, a lot more traps than just three, but in my experience, these are the main ones.

3. Push hard on your IT organization to deliver on “trick plays”. Sorry for the sports metaphor, but it’s applicable.  With respect to IT, “trick plays” mean mission-critical, high-profile projects like constructing new web sites or instituting major new back office systems such as a data warehouse or a new CRM system.
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