> a collection of requirements adds up to a design. No it can't A collection of requirements implies many, many possible designs. Change the team, you get a

> a collection of requirements adds up to a design. No it can't A collection of requirements implies many, many possible designs. Change the team, you get a different design. A good-quality requirement is _testable_, amongst other things. After the design and construction are complete(-ish), the team should have to show that each requirement is in fact met by comprehensive testing. Along the way, each requirement should be mapped to elements of the design. So you can (on paper) verify the design meets requirements. And the designer(s) can be confident they are meeting the full set of requirements. And for the nay-sayers that complain you can't ever adequately elicit the requirements out of the users (or customers), then your engineering process needs to address this risk. See many comments that refer to ways and means to achieve this mitigation.