The project started off with a MUCH larger scope, but a lot more interview / gather specs.

As it progressed, I realized how insanely large a total rewrite would be, including the 3rd party app integration, so I scaled it down to the absolute bare minimum that satisfied the requirements. Then I found out the customer really has no idea what the daily processing does, other than having the ability to review the final result (printed pages, things from inventory gathered, packaged, and shipped).

So rather than interview / gather spec, it became read old code, reengineer.

Note: The total rewrite WILL happen anyway, since as a corp goal, we are trying to get off the mainframe and all the apps that run the tail-end of this process, but not as part of this project.