I think a big part of needless complexity in programs comes from management. Most things I've done in enterprise software for various companies whether financia

I think a big part of needless complexity in programs comes from management. Most things I've done in enterprise software for various companies whether financial or food related are fairly simple underneath all the industrial specific uses. What gums up the works is many things management demands or misunderstands as feasible. First thing that comes to mind here is how often management wants a feature or a product and they want it sooner than what's feasible for the team or the amount of existing code available to achieve the demand. Then there's management's misunderstanding of what programs can do as I've had non-technical people tell me to write a program that would magically anticipate user responses to their inputs and I asked them how we would determine that? And there answer wasn't exactly clarifying. To me it was like they wanted Johnny Carson in a blue turban predicting the future. And finally, I've had management complain that our software doesn't look like a specific product which I told them we could mimic the style but not outright copy it due to potential copyright and trademark infringement. It really turns into a mess when devs and other people with relevant skills (even lawyers, artists, and designers) aren't allowed to do their job.