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Steve Jones (@way0utwest | blog) is hosting this month's T-SQL Tuesday blog party. The official topic this month is: "What issues have you had in interacting with the business to get your job done?"
Learning the Business
Until just a few weeks ago, when I changed jobs, my primary job was to write (and edit, and manage) reports for the business. I spent three years working at this for a small company. I learned, after the first few reports, that my job wasn't simply to write a query and drag fields onto a table. The job was much more involved than that. I found out that not asking questions beforehand often meant I'd spend more time redoing my work than I had building it the first time around.
So, I spent time learning the business side of my job. I educated myself on business terms, understanding cost, price, margins, profits, days to ship, days to pay, and any other important items that were mentioned. I also took it upon myself to understand our business. I researched our biggest suppliers, so I knew what kind of information we could get from them. I studied and worked with our largest and smallest customers, making sure their needs were met.
It would always surprise me, then, when someone else inside the business would not have at least some knowledge of these things. Workers in accounting had no problems understanding commission formulas or what should be on the balance sheet, but they often failed to look past the numbers and at the people we were working with. The account reps would be familiar with customers and suppliers, but I would often have to spend time with them, explaining how certain fields in reports were calculated, or sending definitions of gross margin and average days to pay. I spent a lot time asking if what they requested is what they really wanted.
It is frustrating to work with someone who does not understand the basics of business, or the company you work for. I am not just in IT; I work for a business. Everyone does. I think we should all try to learn more about what our companies do, and how our jobs fit into that, so we can interact with other departments and coworkers more effectively.
Jes Schultz Borland is a Consultant with Brent Ozar Unlimited, and a Microsoft SQL Server MVP. She holds an AAS - Programmer/Analyst degree, is a Microsoft Certified Professional in SQL Server 2012, and has worked with SQL Server as a developer, report writer, DBA, and consultant. Her favorite topics are administration, automation, and SSRS. She is an active member of PASS, President of FoxPASS, founder of Tech on Tap, and a LessThanDot.com blogger. She frequently presents at user groups, SQL Saturdays, and other community events. She is also an avid runner and chef. 
Excellent article. I think it is critically important for every employee of a company to at least understand the basics of what the company offers. It's too much to expect everyone to be an expert in all areas of the business, but the basic understanding immediately increases the value of that employee. I wish all employees shared your perspectives. 
I'll second (or third, as the case may be) this motion. I had typically been accustomed to understanding enough of the business to be able to understand what was being asked for and then able to interpret the request well enough to design the functionality that the business actually needed. Until recently, I assumed this was the standard. Sadly, I have found that I am the exception to this. I wish that more developers had this ability as it would simplify things a great deal and create greater efficiencies and less cost from having to redo applications because of the communication breakdown. 
I agree, understanding the business you are on (and who and how you do business with others) can help you provide more effective reports, applications, and communications with the same or less effort. Understanding the needs of the people we work with and being able to communicate can drastically reduce delivery time of solutions as well as long term maintenance (not to mention the benefits they receive from having a tool or report that better fits their needs, sooner).
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