What are requirements? Put simply, they are a statement of what the client wants the project to deliver. However, they should be considered a wish list of what the client would like, as opposed to what the project is to deliver. The main mistakes made with requirements are assuming that they are complete and correct. Requirements are not always an accurate representation of what the client is after. That's not because the person who wrote them got it wrong but because the person providing the requirement hasn't communicated it accurately. Sometimes people think they know what they want but don't realize until they see the finished product that it doesn't work or make sense.

It's hard to manage a project without a clear idea of what the end result is supposed to be. That's what requirements are for, to define what the end result is supposed to be, and why. Requirements provide the basis on which subsequent decisions are made, so if there is a flaw in the requirements, it's highly...