The Requirement Nobody Wrote: How Unstated Boundaries Become System Behavior

Business and IT teams often spend hours discussing what a system should do while barely discussing what it must not do, who may use it, which exceptions are unacceptable, or what happens when assumptions fail. Those unwritten boundaries do not disappear; they are filled in by developers, vendors, operations teams, or customers. This episode examines how silence becomes system behavior. From the business side, Mirko explores why stakeholders focus on desired outcomes, avoid difficult exclusions, and assume common sense will survive translation. From the IT side, he shows how missing constraints become implementation choices, hidden dependencies, security exposure, or expensive rework. A generalized consulting example demonstrates how a seemingly simple approval process created conflicting outcomes because nobody defined who could override it. Listeners will learn a practical way to surface negative requirements: forbidden actions, ownership limits, exception rules, failure responses, and measurable boundaries. The central lesson is simple: clarity is not only describing the destination; it is marking the edges of the road.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-it-it-business--6867401/support.To continue the conversation, follow Mirko Peters on LinkedIn, where more insights and real-world examples are shared from both business and IT perspectives.