This is worse than TDD "write the test first" extremism. The # of projects that have all the requirements perfectly laid out to enable this is... effectively z

This is worse than TDD "write the test first" extremism. The # of projects that have all the requirements perfectly laid out to enable this is... effectively zero. I can see something where the requirements and iteration/convergence artifacts lead to some structured documentation ... maybe, that's an interesting idea. The reason documentation comes last is that you don't know what comes out the end of the sewer pipe after the vagaries of Faster, Better, Cheaper pick two... well actually it's Faster Better Cheaper Documented ProcessFollowed, pick 2.5.