Just start over again (44)

Colleague Benjamin shared an article that triggered me. It’s in Dutch so let me briefly explain what it’s about for non-Dutch readers. A new system has been developed for publishing legal documents on public services and environmental plans. The new system turns out to be non-workable: the system doesn’t offer the possibility for storing all necessary data. Also the new system isn’t backwards compatible: documents based on the current system can no longer be published and maintained within the new system. Reading through the article I envisioned failures throughout the whole requirements engineering process and specifically on sources for elicitation of requirements.