Every project involves a degree of complexity. Products keep missing performance targets. Compatibility issues prove difficult to resolve. People make ill-informed choices daily. There s no limit to the number of annoyances that creep into the everyday activities of getting things done.
Requirements are what make the second issue the issue of ownership so very, very important.
Many businesses answer project ownership questions by pointing to who s budget is paying for the project, or who s box on the organizational chart has a noose drawn next to it. An IT project is any that revolves primarily around building systems for information capturing, processing, or delivery which in today s world pretty well covers the range of interesting things to do. But IT usually is poorly positioned to define project objectives. Yet there is a big difference between owning a project and owning the general services performed by IT, which frequently includes project delivery services. Business folks rarely are best at deciding which technologies to choose.