Anyone who has built a product or service to a set of requirements has discovered that requirements change.  What customers say they want at the beginning of a project is rarely what they want sometime later as they begin to see the result take form.  Engineers and project managers have complained about this for years.  (Actually, I suspect the problem goes back at least as far as the early Egyptian architects, who likely had this problem with the Pharos.) They call it scope creep.  They blame their customers and try to prevent scope creep by detail requirements documents and carefully worded contracts.  This does not alter the reality that wants change.  They change because the world changes and because the very act of developing a product or service changes the perception of everyone involved, especially the customer.  A more appropriate term would be "wants evolution," a natural and common occurrence. 

The very act of working to achieve something changes a person's understanding of how to achieve what they want.  Remember requirements are not wants they are a listing of specific things that one or more persons believe will satisfy their wants.  Implementing the things in the requirements list has the potential of changing one's mind about how to satisfy wants.  This is a natural, unavoidable, and common occurrence.  Deal with it rather than trying to change the reality.  It is, in fact, a very excellent approach to making our world ever better.

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