IT applications support the organization's activities; they are a clog in a larger machine. IT designers are therefore subcontractors to the overall design of the organization's activity. One of the most persistent problems in IT application design is that no one takes overall responsibility for the total system design. This seems to be a problem unique to IT. When Boeing or Airbus design a new plane, they use Rolls Royce or GE as subcontractors to design their engines. Do you suppose they say to their engine contractor - oh, just gather you own requirements by finding people who are willing to talk to you? I suspect not. So why should IT be different?
IT designers are partially responsible for this state of affairs for two reasons. First, they do not provide users with a good high-level view of the system; instead they drown them with detail. Information systems are largely about collecting and providing information and, unbelievably, it is here where the lack of a good high-level design view is most sorely lacking. The second reason is that there is a lack of facilities to verify designs. Non-IT management are being asked to sign off on a design which the IT people will not even confirm is correct and complete.
The long term aim of conceptual and logical modelling is to rectify these two issues.