Discovery

A week long process to scope a project before developing a plan and recommending a budget.

Effort: 1-2 developer blocks (it's probably more than this but we want to keep it affordable).

• Gather and review any related documents and review

  • manuals

  • forms

  • existing apps

• Prepare discovery session

• Conduct discovery session

• Review discovery session

• Develop plan and estimate budget

Discovery Session

Scheduled across two half-days, ideally Tuesday morning and a Wednesday morning. This allows the Monday for preparation.

Before

• Review session slides

• Forward directions and parking instructions

• Prepare invoice

• Request NDA's

On the day

• Pastries

• Bottled Water

Development Plan Document

Contents

• Scope

• 25 word statement of the application's purpose (6W's)

• Context Diagram

• Actor Table

• Concept Map

• Story Map or Event Map

• Release Plan (MVP)

• Describe the type of app being built

• Responsibilities for team members

• Prerequistes

• Requirements (beyond Features)

• Feature List

• Reports

• Preliminary budget by module (ranges)

• List of outstanding questions

Other considerations

• Responsiveness

• Language

• Data Migration

• Targeted Browsers

How we estimate

An estimate of the required budget is made based on the Feature List. The feature list is divided in modules and abilities. The tasks for abilities are not identified in the discovery due to time constraints. Tasks are identified in the discovery of a module during the project.

Abilities are identified as commands, queries and reports. Due to the complex nature of reports, these abilities also have the tasks identified to help with the estimation process.

Each ability is estimated in "ideal days" based on a comparison made against the archetype abilities. An archetype ability is a simple ability. The comparison involves two developers playing planning poker to determine if an ability is the same; one, two or more times complex than the archetype.

There are also some additional overheads in developing an application which is represented as a percentage of the entire project, e.g. project management.

See the template for more details.