When trying to solve a problem for a customer in software there are four dimensions that need to be understood:

1. The Problem Domain
2. The Problem
3. The Solution
4. The Implementation

What I have observed is that most people and organizations overlook the first dimension, do not clarify the second one, and confuse the third and fourth ones. The net result of this is poor solutions in terms of:

• understanding the problem and the problem domain
• how someone is to use the solution, i.e. too hard or too clumsy to use, and
• the quality and timeliness of the implementation, i.e. late and/or riddled with defects, doesn't scale, etc.

The net result is frustrated and disappointed users and customers, and to add insult to injury, this state of affairs has many pundits proclaiming that all software is crap and off they go spouting reasons why, yet none of them have shown that this misunderstanding of the four axes is one of the root-causes for this state of affairs.

The cure is simple and yet like so many other simple solutions organizations have difficulty in doing:

1. recognize that software/product development is collaborative-knowledge work along and between all four axes, and
2. ensure that the product development team is working on, or including experts, on all fours axes.

For example, the Extreme Programming practice of customer-on-site is an attempt to accomplish this by providing the development team with immediate access to someone who is knowledgeable about the Problem Domain, the Problem and the Solution. Sometimes, a single person fits this bill, but only sometimes.