In Eric Ries’s book Lean Startup, he talks about the product development process as guided by two hypotheses: a value hypothesis and a growth hypothesis. At any given moment, the organization is proceeding based on an idea about how the new product or service will create value for its customers (the value hypothesis) and how it will get customers to adopt the product (the growth hypothesis). The important point is that these are hypotheses, not certainties; a goal in the product development process is to conduct experiments and gather information that will confirm or refute them, in which case other hypotheses can be substituted. In the book I argue that “requirements” given to IT should be thought of only as hypotheses about what will effectively accomplish the business goal, and these hypotheses should be tested before full commitment is made to investing in them.
— War and Peace and IT: Glossary, Mark Schwartz