[JamesBarney]

To be fair this can go the other way too. There are some big boondoggles caused by upper management listening to IT when they said they needed to make huge investments in refactoring and architecture. The business ends up with a new product that does the same thing, at the cost of millions of dollars that will never be recouped.

[f1codz]

You raise a good point.

In my experience, upper management with enough years in the business do not feign as much authority in understanding how IT works. On the contrary IT people who have been with the business long enough seem to think they understand the business pretty well. They don't. And half knowledge is dangerous is indeed a wise saying.

So even though those system architects buzzing with their confidence due to years of being part of the business often provide helpful insight, i would always always run crucial decisions that effect the business functionally, by business people only.