While there is much truth in this, I've found that too many programmers refuse to learn even the fundamentals of the subject matter of the business. Many will tell you this up front and without shame. I know many programmers who have worked at my employer for years and who still do not know the first thing about the business.

In my job, I write requirements for others to code, and I write code from others' requirements. (Often, the entire development cycle begins and ends with me.) In the former role, I often find myself writing requirements so detailed that they begin to resemble pseudo-code because I know that the programmer lacks the business context that would facilitate understanding. Sometimes I start to feel as though I should finish the design and code it myself. If I have to spell out my requirements to the degree of precision that a computer understands, why should I hire a programmer?

My experience is that for every business type who's unwilling to understand the need for precision in requirements, there's a programmer who's unwilling to learn enough about the business to understand its needs. And I, like many other business types in the finance industry where I work, probably appreciate the need for precision as much as any programmer.

While I do agree with the essence of this post--that communication is critical--I think it's important to remember that there's more than one side to this story.