The Unintended User?

For years now I have been in meetings and listened to talks from experts that describe something called the "Unintended User Problem." This term, like many in the SOA world, is bandied about with little to no real definition. This is very convenient for the speaker, as they sound like they know what they are talking about, and it means many things to many people in the audience, so no one tries to make waves by asking a silly questions like "What to you mean, exactly, when you say 'Unintended' user?" Although, even if asked that question, I'm sure and adept and erudite presenter would respond with something like "Well, it depends." That kind of talk has now pushed me the point of being physically ill when I hear a non-answer like that.

At any rate, I’m not sure what people are talking about with the term "Unintended User". After some thought about what the definition of what the "Unintended User" might be, I think people mean: The Unanticipated User

Some definitions may be in order:

The Unanticipated User:
A user that you simply did not expect to show up and use your service.
Of course, you may have certainly intended this user to show up and consume your service. You just don't have quite enough horsepower to support them. This problem is usually solved by adequately scaling your service. Usually, people never quite the all the funding that they ask for and end up deploying on "not quite enough" hardware to support the eventual load. Nonetheless, the basic solutions include running service in a Cluster or “Virtualize” the service; ergo, make the service appropriately scalable.

The Unknown User:
A user that shows up to use the service that are not authorized, regardless of whether you planned enough capacity for them.

This problem is solved by dynamically changing security profiles and access control.

The Unintended User (a.k.a. the Demanding User)
A user that is probably known, and authorized, but does not want to use your service the way it was intended to be used.

This is what I believe is truly meant by the phrase "The Unintended User." It's important to note that the notion of "unindented" should be a mutually understood characteristic of the consumer among the consumer and producer organizations. It not that there is some misconception about the consumer that was caused by short-sightedness on the part of the service provider. The service provider should know what the hell they are doing when they expose a service and be able to explain that to potential consumers. If there are users out there that want to use that service, but in a way that is inconsistent with how the service providers intended, then the user is, by definition, "unintended."

In this case the service provider may create a new service just for that consumer to align with what the consumers idea of "intended" usage. I would hope that the service provider would require the consumer to “pay a premium” to the services producer for that "new" service.
Or, the demanding (a.k.a unintended) consumer will just have to adjust their expectations and user the provided services and the service provider organization intended it to be used.

If the service provider somehow missed the mark with respect to what consumers really wanted, then shame on the service provider. If that is the case, then the provider should take it's medicine, re-evaluate the needs of the consumer and try again.