A shipwright and a navigator have separate but complementary skills.  Neither skill is intrinsic to nor prerequisite for the other.  Similarly, carpenters and architects complement each other. The IT industry, however, has never developed complementary skill sets, relying on technical skill to the virtual exclusion of informational skill.

It is assumed by the typical IT practitioner that the IT customer understands the information of their business.  This is true ... up to a point.  The customer understands enough to understand their business, but not enough to understand the ins and outs of information.  Nor, if asked, do they claim to.  

It is assumed by the IT customer that the IT practitioner understands the proper care and feeding of information.  This is, after all, information technology.  But understanding computers is most definitely not the same thing as understanding information. However, when asked many IT practitioners believe their own story, assuming knowledge of information they simply don't have.  They presume to understand information even though they are unable to answer basic questions about it.

• What are the four dimensions of information? *
• What are information vectors? *
• What are the information contexts that comprise all systems? **
• What are the potential occurrences of information within a context? **
• What are the potential facts within an informational occurrence? **
• What is the difference between objective and subjective information? **
• What is information supercession? *

There is much to be understood about information that has nothing to do with technology.

When developing systems both the IT practitioner and IT customer assume without question that one or the other or both are information experts when, in fact, neither is.  Discussions, plans, and systems default to technical considerations.  Information realities are ignored.