The project that made the code available has one set of needs. Its needs are similar to what some of the receiving organization wants, but not quite the same.

The needs of different customers are generally quite similar; however they might be expressed differently or weighted differently between customers. An example might be how some customers want some result presented in one way while others want it presented in the reverse order---it's simple to do the translation between them, but requires additional coding for one of the cases and the as a result the module that computes the result can't be reused by both customers.

Many customers want the supplier to help them know what they need. The company has many “Systems Engineers” writing requirements for the products. These requirements are supposed to be a distillation of customer needs to guide development of the product.

There are two aspects to solving this problem which should be done in parallel:

- Align the requirements of the projects so that the code that meets the requirements for one project also meets the needs for the other projects.

- Refactor the code into smaller pieces for which the many using projects can agree upon requirements.

In the example presented above, the supplier helps both customers realize that they want the same thing, and it will save everyone effort (and money) if they agree to accept the result in the same format.

<img alt="Common Requirements" src="/assets/img/CommonReqtsv2.jpg">

This might require negotiating requirements changes with the customer. The changes might also require involvement by the sales teams and product managers to get alignment on the requirements. The customer might need incentives, such as discounts, to agree to the changes.

A related pattern (to be written) is a circular story-writing exercise reported at one company employing Inner Sourcing.

The developers write a story to solve a problem in one way.

The program managers rewrite the story to better express their needs---keeping the essence the same. By the time it returns to developers though they don't recognize it as what they wanted to do in the first place and so balk at implementing it. The solution to this pattern is to have more seats around the planning table so that story modifications are understood across the project not just in the developer or program manager camps.

Shepherded pattern