In my position, I visit a lot of organizations and help them deploy a BPMS, and build some of their first business processes. When modeling out these processes, I end up talking to different levels of management. It always amazes me how the perspective on the business changes between different levels of management. Not just in terms of the specific process I am addressing, but of the business as a whole. I am amazed how the farther you get from top level management, the faster you lose sight of the business goals. Technology departments have a tendency to do this as they consider technological virtue over business objectives.
I think that this is less common than it used to be, though. The requirements gathering process at most organizations has become more rigorous. But it takes time, communication, and effort to get very clear on those requirements. Sometimes the business is not clear on its goals either. Not every organization has a mission statement. In that case, the project is not likely to have great success. How can it? Without a goal to compare against, how can you tell if it works?
So business is the master and technology the slave. But unless business is doing a good job selecting and communicating objectives, technology won't be a very useful or profitable slave.
