We as an IT industry should be forcing the bridging of the IT and business gap. Why? The two should be one, like Peanut Butter & Jelly.

The right hand should know what the left hand is thinking and vice versa.

Here’s a great example. One our clients had an important annual customer event. The marketing team engaged a web agency to design the company a brand new mobile application for the big customer event. The agency did a stellar job and delivered an excellent looking mobile app.

However the feedback from their clients was less than impressive. The app was slow and search was difficult at best. Unfortunately the IT team was not involved and the app was not properly tested and was not instrumented to monitor once in production.

Who is to blame?

Both the business and IT should be held accountable and forge tighter working relationships. There should be no surprises and IT should have a rolling 12 month “launch” plan that is shared, socialized and up to date for new app releases.

Jimmy Augustine is Product Marketing Lead for HP Application Performance Management.