Algorithms Meet the Real World
In general, I've always been pleased by how well I can use modern programming languages (C#, Java, C++) to create algorithms that "mimic" some business process that we need to have automated here at my office.
Every now and then, however, we run across something that is very difficult to turn into a programming algorithm.
A past example was dealing with Medicare - the way in which Medicare does things (assignments in particular) - differs from any normal business.
The current example that I'm dealing with at the moment is our shipping queue. There are so many conditionals and rules in the process that it makes it very hard to translate our process into code, much less do it efficiently.
I guess this is why "workflow" and "rules" engines are such a big thing lately.