Discovery phase for software development

If you have an idea for a software project, remember that it is crucial to understand precisely the following aspects: impact on your business, what problems your project addresses, who the target audience is and several other vital factors. Before jumping into the design and development, you must bridge the gap between a concept and its realization. Many projects suffer because business owners need more information to support their goals, which makes a management process inefficient and objectives unclear. The best way to avoid risks like this is to conduct a proper project Discovery Phase, an integral part of the project lifecycle.

Ensure that the Discovery Phase includes all the practical steps to determine how you can benefit your business.

Why does the Discovery Phase matter?

The project Discovery Phase is an extraordinary step of the software development process that aims to identify the project's goals, vision, and scope by gathering information about the project. The project Discovery Phase is the initial step of software development, a planning stage during project initiation, where the team establishes a budget, collects project details, and defines precise project requirements. The Discovery Phase services aim to minimize risks related to product development and enable informed decisions in the further project stages. This article will describe all the essential details of our Discovery Phase services that matter for project success. 

The Discovery phase can allow the following:

• Better identify and make more accurate estimates for project goals and scope.
• Use data instead of assumptions when making design decisions. 
• Guarantee a higher return on investment. 
• Ensure a user-oriented outcome.
• Prevent expensive changes in the project development process at late work stages.
• Collaborate with in-house developers at this early development stage to make their knowledge of business processes useful for future projects. 

Skipping discovery can result in the following:

• Overrunning the project budget even 45% while the benefits shortfall is 56% less than expected.
• Non-measurable expected results can end in long-scope creep, causing extended development processes and delayed release.
• Rising costs. Requirements and goals that must be defined provide costly changes in the development process.
• A project must have an exact vision to be finished timely.

How to prepare for the Discovery Phase in software development

It is well-known that many software development projects can go over budget and end in total or partial failure. One reason is skipping the Discovery Phase, which is an essential part of the product development process.

How can Discovery Phase services help the client? In general, the software Discovery Phase must clarify whether the client's requirements for the software match business needs.

The key pillars of the Discovery Phase services are:

• The analysis of functional and non-functional requirements.
• Evaluation of business.
• Defining users' pain points that the software has to solve.
• Propose the best functionality for future software.

A dedicated expert team will help you validate your product concept by creating a prototype and testing its market viability. The Discovery Phase services allow you to understand the following:

• How long will the development lifecycle take?
• What risks can be avoided?
• Potential costs of the project.

The Discovery Phase services help to create the most detailed and budget-oriented startup development plan possible. Here are a few more reasons why each project needs a Discovery Phase:

• To validate an idea.
• Once the project feasibility is identified, we analyze the market, competitors, and target audience to create a valuable customer-focused product.
• To plan a budget.
• The Discovery Phase services allow for focusing on the core features per the project roadmap, making iterations predictable and budget-stable and avoiding additional costs.
• Define the requirements for future software to reduce the chances of creating a large backlog of uncovered pitfalls. Requirements also provide the founder with a clear and precise budget estimate.

A few things need to be done before the beginning of the Discovery Phase. To prepare for the Discovery Phase properly, you have to think about the following:

• Clearly define the business goals.
• Establish contact between the developer's team and the project owner or central point of contact.
• The project manager must be provided with all existing information or documentation about the project to check if anything else needs to be done before starting the Discovery Phase.
• The estimated ballpark quote for the project is part of the Discovery Phase, so receiving it before work can start is essential.

Software development team for the Discovery Phase

After all preparation for the Discovery Phase is finished and the budget is determined, the software development team must be complete to achieve the objectives. The team comprises a software developer, business analyst, project manager, and UI/UX designer. 

The primary responsibilities of each team member are:

The business analyst prepares project requirements and use cases with the client. It includes defining the project's main aims, target group, and software goals.

During the Discovery Phase, the UI/UX designer's task is to create a usable interface, which includes intuitive software design, easy navigation, and a visually attractive user interface. The prototype is usually made to visualize the idea and prove the requirements of the target users.

The project manager establishes productive cooperation between the product discovery and development teams. It means arranging meetings with the client and recording all the details discussed.

During the Discovery Phase, the software developers define technologies for future software.

The specialists described above are usually part of the Discovery Phase team; sometimes, other professionals can extend their terms according to the project's needs. 

The main steps of the Discovery Phase in software development

The project Discovery Phase usually includes the following:

1. Defining the stakeholders, including administrators, product owners, end-users, developers, investors, or others involved in creating the project.  
2. Defining the business goals, the purpose of the software, and the problem that needs to be solved to boost revenues or increase company productivity.
3.  Communicating the team's vision for the end product. Specify the steps and goals that help measure project success.
4. Specifying the project requirements and steps to meet them.
5. Already-existing documentation and research must be checked to avoid wasting time investigating already-existing research results again. 
6. Identifying the target audience and building an optimal user journey. 
7. Researching competitors' markets allows for defining already existing products in the same or related niches with their pros and cons. This type of research will enable the client to determine the niche for the future product. 
8. Preparing and reviewing all the data for the software requirements specification helps process the gathered statistical data into an applicable list of essential technical requirements for future software. 
9. The final goal of the Discovery Phase preparation is accurately estimating the timeline and budget for creating an MVP or the final product.
10. The other essential document the Discovery Phase aims to create is the roadmap, which contains the completed project timeline with specified deliverables, deadlines, and milestones.

Some of the steps listed above might be omitted or reordered if needed. 

The Discovery Phase consists of meetings between the client and the development team. At the meeting, they discuss the following: 

• Examine the business processes.
• Explore domain area.
• Define clients' product expectations.
• Find bottlenecks in the work process.
• Investigate for software details to meet the requirements and solve problems.
• Create a backlog and specify priorities.
• Generate a roadmap for creating an MVP or the whole project.

Discovery phase duration

Each project development cycle has five phases: initiation, planning, implementation, control, and finalizing. The Discovery Phase is a core element of the project initiation and planning phases, unifying those two steps. It is mainly placed in the first sprint of the Agile management framework. It helps to check the level of understanding between all the participants and compare the client's expectations with the developers' vision of the future project. 

The length of the Discovery Phase can vary depending on the project's scope and complexity. The average time frame ranges from several days for a small project to several weeks or more for a large project.

Deliverables of Discovery Phase

The project complexity, size, current state of development and degree of urgency are the factors that define Discovery Phase deliverables. Depending on the needs of the project at a particular time, the client has to receive, as a result of the Discovery Phase, the following: 

• Before the development work begins, the simplified representation of the core project features and future interface must be ready and presented to the client as a preliminary UX prototype.  
• Review the software requirements specification document (SRS), which describes the feature set, the whole project, the recommended tech stack, and the architecture outline. If needed, suggest changes to the SRS. Along with a preliminary UX prototype, the SRS creates a vision of how future software will function.
• Development estimates and roadmaps include a recommended budget, deadline, and team lineup. If the project scope does not significantly change during the development process, the estimated calculations made during the Discovery Phase usually remain unchanged.
• One of the documents created during the Discovery Phase is a development process proposal, which allows the software development team to create a product that fully meets the client's needs and requirements.

The Discovery Phase is a significant step in software development. It helps minimize development risks and clarify the project vision. 

Best practices for conducting the Discovery Phase

Data collection and analysis are the two most significant tasks of the discovery process. Depending on the project type and business model, the methods differ. To conduct an effective project discovery process, follow the subsequent general steps:

Define professionals for the Discovery Phase

The first and most important decision is to choose the people on a project discovery team who will be responsible for a project's successful initial phase.

Define a problem to solve

Before you start the development process, it is crucial to understand what problem has to be solved with the help of the software you have to develop. The project's key objectives and main goal have to be formulated. To bring value to your target audience, you need to see what real problem makes the basis of the project. For instance, GitHub was invented because a company asked to develop software for better collaboration within one particular project. After that, it became clear that other software developers experienced the same problem in different projects. So GitHub became popular. 

Have a clear vision of the outcome

Defining the vision of desired outcomes is very important to track changes and evaluate the process using practical tools that make your objectives measurable. Remember that you have to set relevant objectives

based on the project goal. The development steps and key performance indicators you use have to make tracking and measuring the project's progress more accurate.

Collect opportunities

You must collect the maximum information during the Discovery Phase to achieve the desired outcomes. You can find opportunities for it by getting the data from frequently asked questions to your customer support team, getting clients' feedback, or searching for information online. Remember to link the market opportunities to the vision of the desired outcome. It will save time for processing unnecessary information and allow you to focus on more relevant and impactful opportunities.

Define the target group

Defining the target market for your future project is the most crucial goal, as it allows you to smoothen and refine other work procedures. The target group's preferences should define various problem-solving methods and decisions in the project.

For instance, the average customer's device usage behaviour should be considered before designing a product for a company working on software development projects.

The starting point is defining the traits and criteria that describe the target audience or consumer. The next step is to compare these traits with the findings from the market research, which helps to picture the target group more realistically. Use surveys and user interviews to improve your understanding of the project's target audience and get more detailed insights. It enables the project discovery team to analyze the patterns that emerged from the surveys, list and rank them based on importance, and define a better way of tackling the project for optimal impact.

Clearly define the whole scope of work

The scope assessment is another critical part of the project Discovery Phase that should be considered. Project limits must be set at this stage to allow all parties to focus on the main goal and the best way to manage the project. All business and technical requirements must be prepared during the project Discovery Phase.

For instance, a software development lifecycle may need a development environment, technical documentation, and an architecture overview.

Use the best tools for gathering data 

Proper data collection and processing can save you time and money. Choose the right tools for collecting qualitative data.

Communicate the project with all team members

Team members can be more motivated when they fully understand the reason behind every task they do. To achieve more transparent project management, business owners must involve employees in every aspect of the Discovery Phase. All team members need the same project objective. Transparency motivates the development team to share their ideas for improving software development.

The Discovery Phase is a separate important project

The Discovery Phase isn't an additional part of the project development cycle that overcomplicates it, even if some might think so. Businesses must see it as a separate, preliminary project where the discovery team and business owner analyze the prospects. 

How do we provide the Discovery Phase as a service?

We provide the Discovery Phase services for our clients as follows:

• We help to develop the startup idea into a market-driven product.
• We analyze competitors' software.
• We define the product features with the client.
• We design wireframes and create a clickable prototype.
• We create specifications.

The following are the steps needed to take during the Discovery Phase:

Business analysis

We start the Discovery Phase services by defining the structure and overall strategy, backed by technical research. Then, we identify the main product features and technologies and analyze your competitors' projects.

Visualization

We work on visualizing the business idea and delivering the project based on specific needs. We provide the client with UI mockups & wireframes.

Technical analysis

We do technical research to identify the essential product features and technology stack, develop technical documentation and provide third-party API testing reports.

Prioritizing

We can organize and prioritize project tasks, create a queue of iterations, and plan project development on both the business and engineering sides.

Roadmapping

We can create a clear and developed roadmap for your approval, including in-depth processes, work scope, timeframes, tech stack, and price. Our clients receive development iterations, team composition, and risk estimation.

Optimization

We optimize the plan at every step, based on the project's specific needs, and make on-demand changes to any specifications even after the project is complete.

UI/UX concept

We create a compelling and well-designed prototype that shows how the app works. We also make the project vision, which describes the project's general goals and proposed software, allowing you to understand the product's potential better.

Project documentation

You'll get all the necessary documentation with the description of all business processes related to the product: functional requirements and development specification, system architecture documentation, technology stack, frameworks, and software components to use, cloud provider and technologies, CI/CD pipeline, implementation plan, efficient resource management, cost proposal with time estimations, established roadmap and MVP milestones, recommendations for task execution sequences, risks, and dependencies.