The most common false assumption in software projects is that requirements are a fixed input. In practice, organizations discover what they need by using something. The first version of a system is a question, not an answer.
Design for the second version
If change is certain, the architecture's job is to make change cheap. That shifts priorities: clear domain boundaries over clever abstractions, explicit data models over implicit ones, and configuration where the organization's own rules are likely to move.
- Separate what the organization is from what it does. Structure changes slowly; workflows change often.
- Keep integration points thin so a module can be replaced without unpicking everything around it.
- Prefer boring, well-understood infrastructure for the parts that must not fail.
- Instrument the system so the next decision is made on evidence.
Ship, observe, reshape
The working rhythm this implies is not a long build followed by a launch. It is a sequence of deliberate versions, each one observed closely in real use, each one reshaping the next. That rhythm is only possible when the engineering underneath was built to be revisited.
The first version of a system is a question, not an answer.