Requirements [Citation needed]

When we look at the word “requirements”, our brains interpret whatever comes next as compulsory conditions that must be met. As a cognitive shortcut – we take those conditions as the facts of the problem at hand. However, humans are fallible and the requirements we’re looking at are nothing more than our (or someone else’s) best guess. This cognitive shortcut sometimes leads us in the wrong direction, only to course correct later on (hopefully). Going through a couple of stories, we’re going to discuss what we can do to catch that we’re in this situation early and mitigate the costs.

Key takeaways

• Be honest with ourselves about our requirements. Is this really “required”?
• Is there a property of the solution we assume goes without saying? Let’s say it.
• Assume that things will change, driven by Murphy’s law – precisely in the way we didn’t plan for.
• Remember that estimating time is the hardest problem in engineering, after naming.