Are Requirements for Web Applications Obsolete?

In a comment on the Requirements Defined blog, curious jim wrote:

How much is useful for defining requirements for web apps development? Simulation or prototyping seems the efficient approach. Software by iRise and Simunication allows build of real simulations of web apps to identify requirements (the latter even hosts online build) so much of the discussion seems a bit dated for this sector.

Asking whether it is useful to define requirements for web app development is equivalent to asking,

Is it useful to understand the problem a web application is supposed to solve?

A requirement is a statement of the least stringent conditions that must hold to solve or avoid a prospect problem. As such, it is nothing more than a logical transposition of a problem statement.

Does the fact that a product or system is a web application mean that understanding the problem it solves is "dated" and not useful? Curious, indeed.

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