What does it mean to "solve a problem"? Furthermore, how can computers be used as a solution? Let me illustrate this with a precautionary tale. It doesn't involve software design, but the principles are the same.
An old company I worked at had a crippling problem. Development groups were not communicating with each other. Each team would work on a module, only to find there were separate interfaces. Months of man-hours were wasted, time and time again. An up and coming intern convinced the management he could solve the problem by implementing a forum. Resources were allocated, and he spent the next few weeks setting up phpBB. Hopefully you can see where this is going.
The tedium of checking forum threads soon wore on the jaded developers. Nobody wanted to root through non-threaded, disorganized responses, or update the attached Wiki. Soon, the server turned into a forgotten wasteland.
Computing problems are solved with computers. Human problems are solved by good leaders. Sometimes, computers can help. Although the forum didn't work, a new developer was hired as I was switching jobs, and was doing a marvelous job uniting the development team. Before I left, a Jabber server was setup in place of the forum. The reception was much better--but the real problem solver was a good leader. Not the computer.
What does it mean to "solve a problem"? Furthermore, how can computers be used as a solution? Let me illustrate this with a precautionary tale. It doesn't involve software design, but the principles are the same.
An old company I worked at had a crippling problem. Development groups were not communicating with each other. Each team would work on a module, only to find there were separate interfaces. Months of man-hours were wasted, time and time again. An up and coming intern convinced the management he could solve the problem by implementing a forum. Resources were allocated, and he spent the next few weeks setting up phpBB. Hopefully you can see where this is going.
The tedium of checking forum threads soon wore on the jaded developers. Nobody wanted to root through non-threaded, disorganized responses, or update the attached Wiki. Soon, the server turned into a forgotten wasteland.
Computing problems are solved with computers. Human problems are solved by good leaders. Sometimes, computers can help. Although the forum didn't work, a new developer was hired as I was switching jobs, and was doing a marvelous job uniting the development team. Before I left, a Jabber server was setup in place of the forum. The reception was much better--but the real problem solver was a good leader. Not the computer.