ask-questions-if-underspecified

To clarify requirements before starting work, you identify underspecified objectives, scope, constraints, and acceptance criteria, then ask 1-5 must-have questions upfront and pause for user confirmation before proceeding.

Requirement elicitation is the discovery process of gathering must-have information about objectives and constraints. You need it for project planning when a request is underspecified to avoid misaligned outcomes and incorrect implementations.

You identify an underspecified request by checking for missing objectives, acceptance criteria, scope, constraints, environment, or safety considerations, then formulating 1-5 concise clarifying questions with recommended defaults.

No, you cannot proceed without explicit approval. The workflow requires you to pause after asking clarifying questions, confirm your interpretation of the answers with the user, and only proceed after receiving explicit approval or stated assumptions.

The best way to pause for answers during requirement discovery is to ask 1-5 concise, scorable questions with recommended defaults upfront, then halt all action until the user provides answers and confirms your interpretation.

Implementations fail when objectives and acceptance criteria are unclear because work proceeds without aligned expectations. Applying requirement elicitation by asking clarifying questions prevents misaligned outcomes by confirming interpretation before acting.