Systems Thinking

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 2:46 PM UTC

sph wrote: post #60

godelski wrote: post #47

> you lay out a huge specification that would fully work through all of the complexity in advance, then build it. This has never happened and never will. You simply are not omniscient. Even if you're smart enough to figure everything out the requirements will change underneath you. But I do still think there's a lot of value into coming up with a good plan before jumping in. A lot of software people like to jump in a…

>> you lay out a huge specification that would fully work through all of the complexity in advance, then build it. > This has never happened and never will. You simply are not omniscient. Even if you're smart enough to figure everything out the requirements will change underneath you. I am one of those "battle-scarred twenty-year+ vets" mentioned in the article, currently working on a large project for a multinationa…

Post by readthenotes1 » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 8:04 PM UTC

zppln wrote: post #22

readthenotes1 wrote: post #2

A major factor supporting evolution over big up-front design is the drift in system requirements over time. Even on large military like projects, apparently there's "discovery"--and the more years that pass, the more requirements change.

This isn't my experience. Requirements tend to settle over time (unless they're stupidly written). Users tend to like things to stay the same, with perhaps some improvement to performance here and there. But if anything, all development is the search for the search for the requirements. Some just value writing them down.