Every month I attend the Salt Lake Agile Software Development discussion group (more details here). This is a group of business owners, managers, and software developers that get together and discuss anything and everything related to Agile software development.

At the last meeting one of the participants was describing some of the challenges he was experiencing at his place of work. He works for a fairly large corporation that runs their IT department as a zero cost center. This is fairly common. Under this structure the IT department must charge back every dollar spent on their services to the other business units.

I have heard many people describe issues that arise under this structure when trying to build internal business software. The main issues center around the business unit managers feeling that they are paying the bill, so they should be able to get whatever features they want. When you have 5 to 10 of these business unit managers all trying to steer the software in random directions you end up with a big ball of mud.

As I listened to the group offering suggestions on how to address this issue, it struck me that if the IT department is asked to run as a zero cost center, they are really being asked to run the department as a business (a non-profit business, but a business as the same). Businesses have stated goals and directives. These serve as guidance in selecting which clients and projects to work on.

In our business we are constantly comparing job opportunities to our goals. This is our litmus test on when to fight for, or pass on, certain projects/clients. So, it makes perfect sense to me that, if a business unit manager asks for a feature that does not map to the goals and directives of the IT department, then the appropriate response is no.

The manager will probably throw a fit and say something about having money to pay for it. Being able to pay for it, does not make it the right thing for the business.

So, for those of you who are in this situation, do you think saying no would work? Are you doing this? Would senior management support you in these decisions?