Requirements Are Dangerous

Here are some problems with requirements:

• Requirements are incomplete
• Requirements are wrong
• Requirements include features that don't make sense or will likely not be used

The problem with giving the requirements to engineers are:

• Engineers think the requirements are complete
• Engineers think the requirements are correct
• Engineers think this feature is worth implementing
• Engineers take the requirements too literally

This gets very expensive very fast.  Some recommendations to fix this problem:

• Talk to the person who provided the requirements.
• Review the requirements in person and in real time (not via email or by passing a doc back and forth)
• Question the value of the feature
• Demo the product as it is being developed to make sure you are on the right path.

For those of you who will take this article literally and argue the definition of "requirements", you probably take the requirements too literally too and have been falling into the same problem for years.