I Have a Problem with Issues

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I have a Problem with Issues...

One thing I have noticed over the years is that the word problem is being replaced by the word issue. It seems no one has problems any more, we only have issues. (And don't even get me started on challenges.) For example, while watching TV the other night, I heard a news caster reporting on a Twitter outage as saying,

“Twitter users are experiencing issues accessing Twitter. Their engineers are currently working to resolve the issue.”

Since Engineered Software offers Software as a Service to our PUMP-FLO customers I understand the necessity for their website to remain up and running at all times. I also understand what it takes to maintain this up-time and what it means when there are unplanned outages. Knowing this, I would imagine that with their primary and backup servers down, and no activity on their site for more than an hour, the engineers at Twitter had a full-fledged problem on their hands.

I wanted to investigate the difference between problems and issues, so like all Internet aged people that want a quick “answer” to a question I did a Google search on "Problem vs. Issue." What I found was a lot of sappy crap written in forums that could be summarized as this; issues can be discussed and corrected, but problems were big and nasty and couldn’t be solved. (I once used that definition of problem in my differential equations class in college, but my professor took issue with that.)

The word problem, is still in limited use, but I have yet to hear a math teacher assign any homework issues.

I then decided to look up the definition in a dictionary so I went to Wikipedia®. They had usage examples of the two words but no definitions. I then clicked on their disclaimer page and found out they make no guarantee of validity. Since I feel as though my blog readers deserved a guarantee of validity, I decided to look up the definitions in a paper dictionary. Webster surely guarantees their definitions.

I went around the office and asked 15 people if I could borrow their dictionary. The responses ranged from, “Let me get my phone” to “What, is the internet down?” along with similar refrains. Only one person in our office of 35 had a paper dictionary and after he found a similar sized book to hold up his monitor he loaned it to me. It was a Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 10th edition. One good thing Merriam Webster’s has a Website that lists their definitions as well, so if you have difficulty finding a paper dictionary in your office I have provided the following links to their Website.

Problem: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/problem

Issue: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/issue

The first thing I notice is that problem has only two uses, and they both relate to questions raised for inquiry or an unsettled question. This is a straight forward definition that can be understood by all.

Issue on the other hand, has NINE uses of the word, ranging from: the proceeds from a source of revenue, the action of coming or going, a means of going out, a financial outcome, a final conclusion or decision, a discharge of blood from the body, something coming from a specific source, and the act of publishing or officially giving out or making available. Item six on their usage list is “a matter that is in dispute between two or more parties.”

So how did we get to the point of calling our problems issues? It surely wasn’t to make the sentence easier to understand. For example, if someone says “I have an issue with my eye,” do they mean they are having a bloody discharge from their eye, or are they saying their eye is having a matter of dispute with their nose? More than likely, they didn’t want to upset anyone around them with their (possibly serious) problems.

I think people have stopped using the word problem because of our phobia with math. Just ask any parent of a high school student taking first year of algebra. Unless the parent majored in math, a physical science, or engineering, the typical response is “I really have issues with math.” What they are trying to say is if they must think too much about their kid’s math assignment they may overload their brain and have a bloody discharge coming from their ears.

So in the future I will always strive to use the word problem when it relates to a question raised for inquiry or any unsettled question. I will still strive to arrive at a solution to my problem, either by by conducting research (Wikipedia and Google don’t count unless the citation can be documented) or until I gain an understanding of my problem and arrive at a solution. I also may sit down with a group of people to discuss the facts of the problem and strive to arrive at a solution that is agreeable to all.

I will leave the word issues to bloody discharges from a body, when a stamp or stock is released, or when I want to have a never ending discussion about something that is ill defined and has no point. Those are my only issues with this word problem of clarity. When I was in the Navy we called them “Sea Stories.”

So this is my stand against jargon, incorrect language usage and unclear communication. I am tired of my industry skirting around problems by calling them issues, so I am taking a stand with this blog post. Let’s all be honest about our Problems vs. Issues and call a spade a spade! Because you can't solve a problem until you admit there is one.

Who’s with me?

You can leave your comments below or send me an email to blogger@eng-software [dot] com. We really do read every one!

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