In my experience and from what I hear from clients the greatest barrier is getting approval. Looking at the bigger picture, it’s not necessarily getting management’s approval but rather IT’s failure to prove the value to management and help them see the underlying business reasons for needing it. It’s the bane of us IT folks – not being able to communicate well on
other people’s levels. But if you can overcome it, learning to “sell” IT effectively is one of the best things you can do for your career.

Here’s a bit I wrote about building credibility to get others on your side.

I couldnt agree with you more.
I used to be on the vendor side of things, and could not for the life of me understand why IT does things the way they do it.
So, I wanted to explore the customer side of things, and its not pretty. I rather be on the vendor side.

Two big problems, tech heads being unable to articulate value to the IT management, and then IT management in
turn having a hard time making a decision.
It does happen too that tech heads cant make up their mind, and flit from one shiny new thing to the next. Which in turn dilutes their credibility with their own management, and in turn IT’s credibility with the business users.