Along with the risk of failing to address the needs of a group of stakeholders, another common challenge in requirements gathering is to understand that different parties in the development process have different ways of looking at the project and the requirements, which can cause issues down the road.

Consider the Tree Swing cartoon, a classic humorous graphical metaphor for communication challenges arising from the different backgrounds of participants in a project:

As a software developer, you need to both learn to recognize the viewpoints of your stakeholders and respond to them appropriately and professionally. These skills are best developed through practice, so be sure to try to see the project from your stakeholder’s perspective!