There are three levels at work in IT. First, it's important to understand that all IT work is carried out by vendors or providers of some sort. Either a IT vendor or internal IT group which is essentially still a vendor (often shared services) to the business, albeit part of the same company.
This can be broken into three levels of hierarchy.
The executive level is the level VP and above - they write checks. If you don't spend the company's money - you are not at this level. They spend money on programs. They don't know or need to know (or care about) specifics. They are only concerned with the investment and not even individual investments but the organization as a whole.
The bottom level is the IT worker. They are the programmers, managers, etc.. that carry out the specific tasks, do the work.
In between is the (often called Sr. Managers, Acct execs, or VPs in consulting). Not straight sales guys (which is a specific skill, and who are specifically there to close, that's a different breed).
These are the schmoozers. Project people (level 3) have to report to them and they typically hold pretty decent amount of power (reporting to the CEO of a smaller IT consulting or svcs firm, or a COO or SVP in a larger firm). They get credit, sometimes deserved, for bringing in business, so they have power - AND they are often completely incompetent in knowing what to look for and managing a project to success.
They have the power and they don't know what to do, or won't do it. The managers below them, experienced team leads, etc.. know what to do but don't have the power or resources under their control.
It fails at this level, and the level 3 folks (proj mangers, leads, dev, etc..) are not directed appropriately. They may be the greatest team leads and developers etc.. in the world, and the project still fails.
This can be broken into three levels of hierarchy.
The executive level is the level VP and above - they write checks. If you don't spend the company's money - you are not at this level. They spend money on programs. They don't know or need to know (or care about) specifics. They are only concerned with the investment and not even individual investments but the organization as a whole.
The bottom level is the IT worker. They are the programmers, managers, etc.. that carry out the specific tasks, do the work.
In between is the (often called Sr. Managers, Acct execs, or VPs in consulting). Not straight sales guys (which is a specific skill, and who are specifically there to close, that's a different breed).
These are the schmoozers. Project people (level 3) have to report to them and they typically hold pretty decent amount of power (reporting to the CEO of a smaller IT consulting or svcs firm, or a COO or SVP in a larger firm). They get credit, sometimes deserved, for bringing in business, so they have power - AND they are often completely incompetent in knowing what to look for and managing a project to success.
They have the power and they don't know what to do, or won't do it. The managers below them, experienced team leads, etc.. know what to do but don't have the power or resources under their control.
It fails at this level, and the level 3 folks (proj mangers, leads, dev, etc..) are not directed appropriately. They may be the greatest team leads and developers etc.. in the world, and the project still fails.