The developer's misconception

The predominant misconception among software developers is that all software projects would be successful if the requirements didn't change all the time.

Implied by this thought is that the project wouldn't have failed or been delayed if the customer had made up their minds about what they really wanted and if project management had had the guts to tell the customer that they can't change the requirements beyond a certain point.

This reasoning is plain wrong, but it took me many years to realize this. Change is the only constant, and software developers must learn this, accept it, and finally master it. As Kent Beck once put it: Embrace change.