Business Role changing?

One interesting trend that I have seen among BR projects is the more active involvement of business vs technical people.  The newest aspect of this involvement is that business (vs IT) people want to get started in identifying those business problems or opportunities that may be addressed by BR management and how they can plan and scope the feasibility of doing so, prior to engaging IT.  Sometimes the reasons are that the IT resources for assisting in this regard are scarce and sometimes the reasons are that the business resources want to initiate BR projects first, prior to going for IT budget money.  Has anyone else experienced this?  If so, what kind of training do the business people need in order to do the scoping and feasibility of *starting* a BR project?  What role should IT play in this start-up phase?