ask-questions-if-underspecified

To clarify requirements before implementing, ask 1 to 5 essential questions covering objectives, scope, constraints, environment, and acceptance criteria, then pause for answers to prevent speculative work and rework.

Underspecified engineering work leads to rework because missing objectives, scope, or constraints cause misalignment. Asking must-have questions first and confirming interpretation before proceeding eliminates this ambiguity.

The best way to stop a workflow from building the wrong solution is to enforce a must-have questions protocol that pauses for answers and explicit confirmation before any implementation begins.

You need to ask clarifying questions during software development whenever a request is underspecified across objectives, scope, constraints, environment, or acceptance criteria to avoid wrong work.

You should ask 1 to 5 must-have clarifying questions before starting implementation. This limits scope creep while ensuring enough context to proceed without guessing at underspecified requirements.