I observed a very talented engineering team making a basic mistake today.
I think we often mis-interpret what 'barely sufficient' means in the context of agile software development and delivery. It is mistakenly interpreted as an excuse to cut down requirements. In reality, I believe it really applies more to engineering and design than to requirements. There are two different syndromes to be careful of in a software project - 'scope creep' and 'creeping elegance'.
In an agile methodology, we iterate through cycles of 'design a little', 'code a little', 'test a little'. We embarq on writing software often without fully understanding the problem. I am a big fan of this vs up front. Personally, I pretty much think on the keyboard as I believe, people learn incrementally. That said, I am aware always that there is a risk in this mode until I have a full grasp of the problem. My energy is always directed towards activities or areas that help me flesh out unknowns. Whilst in this mode, I 'hack' for speed and refactor only after I think I have my arms around the business problem.
What I found the team doing was laying the 'foundation' down aka building middleware. That by itself wasnt a problem, however, they had taken their eyes of the business problem and failed to deliver the results in the needed timeframe.
Programming competitions are a great way to teach developers this mindset. You have a fixed duration so you have to be quick. You have to focus on the problem and only the problem .. no deviating onto bunny trails. You have to solve the problem in the simplest quickest way. As engineers, we love complexity so, the last discipline is the hardest.
