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Crash course

Weeks ago I attended a course about requirements at a clients' premises, and spoke briefly as a "special guest" about my experiences in requirements gathering.
The audience was all senior people, from 10 to 30 years experience.

Which were my four cents ?

1. Be careful of the usual three pillars of chaos form the users: wrong facts, omissions and inconsistency,

2. Ask three times Why ? why ? and why ? (the first answer is never the right one),

3. The system needs 100, the users tells you he wants 90, you understand 80, you write 70 and the developer starts working on the 60 he understands,
4. There are things you do know and things you THINK you know but you don't, so
be respectful of the "monkey" user, he always know the business better than you. Be humble.

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