We have a requirements analysis team. I think they are supposed to work with the customer to figure out what they want. That is a daunting task. It turns out that this team frequently comes to development to ask us what the requirements are. There is something very backwards about this arrangement.These requirements are then verified with the customer. They are also used by our internal testers, as well as the customer's acceptance test team. It is crucial that these requirements are clear and correct. Lack of clarity means someone is going to get confused. This confusion is a source of trouble. Customers will think they are getting something else. Testers will think the implementation is not correct.
One thing is for sure. It is best to have the requirements correctly documented during the requirements analysis phase. Unfortunately this is not an easy task. And therefore it is not always the way work gets done. We must still strive for this optimal setup for design and development.
