&gt; discussions should be collaborative, not argumentative<p>There&#x27;s a bit of a prisoner&#x27;s dilemma here, though. I&#x27;ve tried the collaborative approach with decision makers before only to get grilled, spun into a defensive position, and ultimately dismissed.<p>I think, generally, developers are empathetic to business needs, though they may disagree about the specifics. I find the lack of collaboration comes from the other side of things. Often because of a lack of context from the business side.