Requirement Understanding

Thinking through user actions before coding can reduce debugging time. Implementation speed does not matter when the team is solving the wrong problem. The Ariane 5 failure is used as an example of code reuse without understanding the new context. Clarifying requirements early includes asking questions, validating assumptions, identifying edge cases, and aligning stakeholders on the problem. Developers should clarify requirements, user needs, constraints, and success criteria before investing heavily in code. Developers should understand goals, constraints, users, and success criteria before committing heavily to a solution. Implementation should not begin before user needs, business goals, constraints, and acceptance criteria are clear. Developers should write the problem in one sentence before typing code. Building before understanding the problem can lead developers to solve the wrong thing. Building before understanding the problem can waste substantial engineering effort. High-quality code is still wasteful when it solves the wrong problem. Building before understanding the problem can waste major portions of a project budget. Coding immediately after receiving a ticket can p…