In reviewing the texts for such a course, we found books that only covered business communications or only focused on IT topics. We were unable to find a book that we wanted for our new course that integrates both areas well. Thus, this gave way for the genesis of this book, Communicating as IT Professionals, in order to fill this vacuum. We were also very pleased to hear in the reviews of our book proposal that this book would be greatly needed in both the Computer Science and IT curricula, at the undergraduate and graduate levels. With our over 70 years of combined industrial and academic experiences, we tried to write this book that touches on many important endeavors facing the typical IT professional. From writing functional requirements to conducting technical reviews to even crafting executive summaries and email, the IT professional is impacted by his/her written communications skills. Similarly, whether giving a presentation or meeting company representatives from abroad, the IT professional must be very cognizant of presenting him/herself well. This book is geared for an upper undergraduate or first year graduate course for the information systems, information technology, or computer science program. The book is consciously written in an easy flowing, familiar manner, with warm-up and classroom exercises sprinkled throughout the chapters.

Table of Contents

Preface!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Dedication!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. The IT Wave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Chapter One: The "Write" Stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Chapter Two: Eliciting and Writing User Requirements!!!!. Chapter Three: Due Diligence as an IT Professional!!!!!.. Chapter Four: Writing Feasibility Studies!!!!!!!!!!.. Chapter Five: Cross-Cultural Communications!!!!!!!! Chapter Six: Ethics for the IT Professional!!!!!!!!!! Chapter Seven: Effective IT Oral Communications!!!!!!.. Chapter Eight: Technical Reviews!!!!!!!!!!!!!.. Chapter Nine: IT Consulting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.