Went to the swanky central London offices of IT consultancy ThoughtWorks the other day to receive wisdom and insight from chief scientist there Martin Fowler, and UK MD Cyndi Mitchell. The first piece of insight I got was that clearly I'm working in the wrong industry; the offices occupy the ninth floor of a modern airy building with stunning views over London and a large bowl full of chocolates for visitors. Resolving to 'ave words with facilities management on my return to the office, I went on to hear about Martin's work at the cutting edge of domain specific languages and Agile development methods, some of which I understood, and some I didn't.

The communication barrier between business users and developers has long been a problem for firms; a brick wall which diagrammatic techniques for conveying information fails in most cases to break down, he told me. But Agile software development techniques involve the breaking down of projects into small chunks and regular reviews, which effectively forces both sides to the table and encourages new ideas to come out of the collaboration. Sounds smashing I think you'll agree, and combined with domain specific languages – a way of describing the most technical aspects of a system in a way non-tecchies can understand – there is real potential for technologists to prove their worth by developing stuff that the business actually needs.