Requirements, Plato´s Cave, and Perceptions of Reality

Software developers build systems in response to agreed-upon requirements as if those requirements were absolutely perfect. Those of us in the requirements field know that the process of creating and documenting requirements is extremely error- prone. In fact, so error prone that we wonder why developers (a) accept them as truth, and then to make matters worse, (b) make it so difficult to change them when problems are eventually discovered. This paper draws an analogy between the process of requirements determination and Plato´s allegory of the cave. Specifically, it describes requirements problems that arise when our perceptions of reality differ from actual reality.