When you communicate with your client whether it is senior management or department managers, you need to “net it out”.
What I mean is that you need to give them the bullet points, , , the answer, , , the abbreviated or abridged version, , , , , , , , , , not the paragraph, highly detailed version.
Business people start turning you off within two to three minutes if they hear lots of detail, , , and especially if they hear “technology”.
Senior managers want the answer. If they need more detail, they will ask questions and get to the detail they need. Middle managers of business are similar although many can be a bit more detail, , , but when it comes to technology, they don’t want to hear very much about how, , , only why we need the things you are recommending.
“What’s in it for me?” That is the question you need to answer as you communicate with business people.
The challenge we have as IT professionals is that because we are so detail oriented, we think others want and need to understand the detail.
They don’t usually want it, need it, and are usually not interested in all the detail. You are wasting your breath when you discuss many of the things in technology at a detail level and you are wasting their time.
Give them the answer and be prepared to discuss the issue at lower levels as needed.
ITLever™ 