The only problem is (still) the ego of the developer...

If one would take the time to really investigate the scale of the business process at the end-user level and combine this with the information need of the management the result is a proper normalized database and a proper workflow. If a proper finite state machine methodology is chosen and a proper set of GUI templates is defined, all that is needed is a team of developers that are willing to co-operate and see the new system as a joint effort. This opposed to the "look how clever i am because i will decide what you need" approach resulting in the dreaded "information islands".

In my opinion the data <> application is rediculous: any application without data is useless unless you like to type "Hello world!" all day. A database can always be queried, delivering a set of information (if queried correctly) that is comprehensive and can be used by any application.

Therefore, developers that start building applications without a proper data model have no place in a professional environment.