Most programming tasks don't involve the life safety issues you are using as examples. It is certainly true that overdesign up front can be fatal to the financ

Most programming tasks don't involve the life safety issues you are using as examples. It is certainly true that overdesign up front can be fatal to the finances of a project. There is even a term for people who engage in this, "architecture astronauts" The point is to know what you are working on, and what the customer needs. If they need one or two simple data stores and a couple of web pages, you don't need to spend weeks talking about it.