I just witnessed a very similar situation, on a smaller scale, but there are many of these in my company, and they add up.
Boss: "We need access to the database of our primary application that you wrote for us so that we can pull the data into this new tool to track progress."
IT: "No. Not only can we not give you access to YOUR data in YOUR application that we wrote on YOUR dime, we will not allow you to have this new application written by someone who isn't in our group. If you wanted something like this, why didn't you just ask us? We would have written this for you."
Boss: "We had a meeting about this over a year and a half ago, and you told me that you didn't even have the time to discuss it further."
IT: "... Well, we're still not going to let you do this."
IT is effectively holding the rest of the company hostage, and the corporate technical debt is becoming epic. So skunkworks solutions will continue to be developed.
Boss: "We need access to the database of our primary application that you wrote for us so that we can pull the data into this new tool to track progress."
IT: "No. Not only can we not give you access to YOUR data in YOUR application that we wrote on YOUR dime, we will not allow you to have this new application written by someone who isn't in our group. If you wanted something like this, why didn't you just ask us? We would have written this for you."
Boss: "We had a meeting about this over a year and a half ago, and you told me that you didn't even have the time to discuss it further."
IT: "... Well, we're still not going to let you do this."
IT is effectively holding the rest of the company hostage, and the corporate technical debt is becoming epic. So skunkworks solutions will continue to be developed.