http://my.unidata.ucar.edu/content/staff/caron/collab/wicked.html (Via)

“Wicked problems possess a number of distinctive properties that violate the assumptions that must be made to use the problem solving methods of tame problems.”

As part of my job and everyday life, I take a sort of evil pleasure in designing good solutions to wicked problems. It’s satisfying to define a problem clearly where no definition already exists, and it’s even better to make solutions to those problems that you can watch people use.

There is, however, a middle stage of problem solving that is accompanied by fear, uncertainty, and doubt – when the problem seems so overwhelming and complex that it’s tempting to give up and create a dumb, unwieldy solution and push-back the problem onto the users of the application. With experience, an information / solution herder can learn to overcome this stage. In my mind, the FUD stage is the sure sign that the mental mapping you’re developing is expanding to include the problem space, which generates that emotional response.