Cutter Consortium's tag line is "Leveraging IT for Competitive Advantage." Integral to leveraging IT is managing the many relationships IT departments and IT professionals develop in the course of their work. Today's IT professional must be a people-person. Project managers need to be able to manage highly skilled individuals; business-IT strategists seeking to implement business intelligence initiatives will need to "sell" the organizational and cultural changes necessary for a successful implementation; CIOs often have to manage intense relationships with other executives as well as with service providers. How IT departments and professionals relate to people and technology is a pivotal issue studied by each of the practice areas Cutter Consortium serves. Periodically, over the next several months, we'll explore the relationship management issues and strategies in business technology.