[mmcnl]

And how do you figure out what the requirements are? In my 10+ professional years, I have never gotten requirements by asking for them. Almost always I had to show my interpretation of what I think the requirements are, and use the feedback I got to define the actual requirements. The quickest way to get there is by iterating.

[spiderxxxx]

You don't ask for the requirements. You ask what they're trying to do, or what problem they're trying to solve. Sometimes I have to ask "where is this data going" or "what do you expect the end result of this to be".

[mmcnl]

Not disagreeing here but whatever question you ask, you will only get the final answer _after_ you have implemented it, almost always after several iterations.