it sounds like you have an idea of what they do and what they want you to do. That's a huge advantage.

I've been in several projects where the Other Side really didn't know or understand what we could offer. (we being the company(s) I'm with at the time.) Realistically speaking, Our Side (being software developers, we Knows What We Has to Offer) probably wanted to hammer their business into the mold of Our Holy Software.

And their departments probably wanted No Part of the Superior Business Practices We Were Foisting Upon them. (Needless to say, all this is being conducted at a High Level of Dialog, between Presidents and Presidents and Hell with the Underlings. On Either Side.)

A Victorian Novel Specification (as Yourdon calls it) is Written, specifications which probably has nothing to do with any real ability of software or anything they're doing in the business, and Signed Off Upon.

Er, perhaps I'm thinking too much of a couple of bad experiences in my past. But if nothing else they taught me muchly about how The Mythical Man-Month is so very, very right even after thirty years.