[satyrnein]

Interesting angle. What if the business asked for it, the dev team delivered it, but the business subsequently gave up on it, and now it's overengineered in comparison to what remains in use. To avoid this scenario, I don't try to outthink the business team, but I do push people toward temporary manual workflows sometimes, and promise to automate later if the idea actually pans out.

[mmcgaha]

Yes the business team will often ask for things they don't need but I can justify that cost. It can still impede other development but we tackle that when it becomes a problem not before.

I agree completely on pushing off features that are not core because it is better to learn in production than to daydream in meetings. I would say most phase-2 features never get implemented.