An outstanding engineer, a person credited with eighty or ninety patents, and continuing to be more productive than ever, told an engineering professor, "If you can just get one thing across to those seniors make it this: that there is no such thing as a closed engineering problem. All our problems are open ended. Engineers have to decide themselves what they are going to do about the problems. No outsider can tell them, 'Do this', 'Do that'." The engineer went on to complain that some of the most promising young engineers are often at a loss how to proceed with an engineering situation what to do next. They apparently expect some superior to lay out the problem and tell them how to solve it. "If the boss could do that", the engineer said, "it wouldn't be much of an engineering problem."

Although this person's group happened to be working on new development, the comment applies to any professional engineering work. Before those still close to their academic training get into actual practice, they often miss the whole point of problem solving. To intelligently practice engineering you must be able to recognize engineering problems when they arise. You must have a well-developed approach for solving them.