CONCEPT
Requirements Ambiguity
Brooks's first form of essential complexity: the structural fact that users do not know what they want until they see what they do not want — and the gap between stated requirements, actual needs, and successful design is irreducible.
The requirements of a software system are not a fixed set of specifications waiting to be discovered. They are a moving target, shaped by the interaction between the system and its users — and the interaction does not exist until the system exists. Requirements change as the system is built, because the act of building changes the users' understanding of what is possible, which changes their understanding of what is desirable. This recursion is inherent in the relationship between artifacts and their users. It cannot be eliminated. It can only be navigated, through iterative development, through prototyping, through the slow and expensive process of building something, showing it to users, learning that it is wrong, and building again. AI makes each iteration faster. It does not make the ambiguity smaller.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The nurse who says she needs fast access to vital signs may mean something specific about visual layout, click