Quote - ... This is often what happens when the business user plays engineer in product development. The business user thinks there is a particular way to go about this, and asks for the pieces that accomplish the goal in that particular way. The engineers happen to know a more straightforward way, but since nobody tells them what the actual goal or requirement is, they can't bring it up.

I know exactly what you mean, it happens to me all the time in software development. I had somebody waste an hour of my time the other day because he went to a two hour meeting to try to streamline the development process on a project. I told him why it wouldn't work, and gave him a solution that would work. Then I had to wait for him to get the new idea approved. If they'd just asked me in the first place and told me what they were trying to do... sigh

However after 24 years in the biz (mumbles to self... Geez, am I that old?) I've come to recognize that sometimes you just gotta keep digging until the right answer comes up. I try to answer the questions asked, then always pose back the question, "Now, what are you ultimately trying to accomplish here?" which works wonders.