Exactly this. I've never encountered any well-defined problem outside of a textbook. In practice, I've always had to discover the goals / problems and then the

Exactly this. I've never encountered any well-defined problem outside of a textbook. In practice, I've always had to discover the goals / problems and then the underlying processes that define them, and only then can you begin to manipulate the processes to optimize your goals. This whole process is iterative, self-influencing, and dynamic. I honestly can't think of one situation where anything was well defined and thats in over 7 years of software engineering exp, albiet startups, agencies, and freelancing, perhaps at Big Corp #1 its different, experience tells me to doubt it though...