It sounds to me very much like some of the guiding principles behind the agile movement, or maybe more specifically XP. Building stuff to be simple, and to be

It sounds to me very much like some of the guiding principles behind the agile movement, or maybe more specifically XP. Building stuff to be simple, and to be engineered so as to embrace change as requirements appear is very much part of that vision. Building for current requirements with the confidence that the software is robust and extensible so as to be able to tackle future requirements is basically the job - it's been a long time since i've seen an actual software specification (last one I saw was in 1991!). Of course it's all about balance. Too simple so as to make refactoring painful, or too complicated to support scenarios that aren't likely to happen is bad. Experience tells you where the middle ground lies.