Master's Thesis from the year 2005 in the subject Sociology - Communication, grade: B+, University of Applied Sciences Essen (FOM Berlin), language: English, abstract: This study has been motivated by the author’s perception of the problems experienced in his professional career in the IT industry. Although project participants are not lacking in skill or expertise, often IT projects seem not to have the expected outcome. Communication obstacles prevent a full understanding of each others problems. The real issues to be solved are filtered by hierarchical levels, differences in education and different meanings of specific topics. Even if technical and non-technical project participants think they understand each other, in reality they don’t. This results in unnecessary work for all persons involved and higher project costs. This text tries to find the reasons for these communication obstacles and underlying root causes. Based on these findings recommendations and fields of further research are being developed.