[Mertax]

I’ve also seen the failures in requirement driven software. When engineers receive unfiltered customer requests as requirements or tasks they tend to focus simply on getting that functionality into the software. Most times not understanding the job the customer is trying to get done.

There are different personalities of engineers, those who thrive on explicit requirements and can accomplish difficult engineering tasks when they are given clear requirements. But those engineers should only be given those requirements once the job that the customer is trying to get done is clearly understood. Some engineers have the ability to find creative solutions, that customers or product managers can’t see, when they are provided with problems and jobs rather than requirements and tasks.

Managers would be wise to distinguish between the type of engineers they are managing and play to their strengths. Whatever type you have, understanding the job the end user is trying to get done must occur, preferably by an engineer that’s capable of articulating that, if needed, to team members as technical requirements.

[pure-awesome]

Paraphrasing, you said

> There are engineers who can accomplish difficult engineering tasks when they are given clear requirements and engineers have the ability to find creative solutions when they are provided with problems and jobs rather than requirements and tasks.

I feel like I could perform adequately in either environment. The problem is I've previously found myself in environments where I'm expected to come up with creative solutions to a problem, but I have no access to the customer or even a simulated environment where I could try to do something similar to what a customer would do.

In this kind of case, it's impossible to really know how to articulate your requirements, because all you can use is a fantasy model of hypotheticals. But requests for more precise requirements are potentially brushed off as wanting to be spoon-fed what you need to do and having inability or unwillingness to think creatively.