Why you need a discovery phase
The discovery phase lays down the groundwork for the development process by analysing, prioritising, and refining ideas and requirements. Here’s why you need a discovery phase:
Clear requirements
We conduct a thorough requirements gathering process where we collaborate with you to clearly define the technical, operational, and design requirements. This brings us on the same page regarding project development, expectations, and outcomes.
Identify obstacles and risks
With proper planning and accurate analysis during the discovery phase of a project, you can reduce the risks and likelihood of mishaps and failures. Work on the project only begins once we are sure about the practicality and feasibility of the idea.
Accurate estimates
A bird's-eye view of your project helps estimate the scope and cost of development. Software discovery helps you align and prioritise your requirements to best fit your scope and budget before development begins.
Design and specification
The discovery phase helps you visualise the design and specifications of your software application. We can develop low- and high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes for you at this stage to give you a realistic idea of the touch and feel of the final product.
Stages of the discovery Phase
Let's walk you through the step-by-step breakdown of our discovery phase for software projects.
1. Understanding your vision
The first stage of the discovery phase is designed to understand our client’s vision for their software application. This involves understanding the background along with the pain points the envisioned product is aiming to address.
Deliverables
- Identification of high-level user stories along with all system actors
- Outline of exceptions scenarios
2. Visualising your idea
Once we understand the vision and background of your software idea, we move on to the next stage of the discovery phase - visualising the idea. This includes mapping the product vision to a user experience that conforms to the contemporary and is sufficiently powerful to incorporate the use cases identified.
Deliverables
- UI/UX design
- Additional and improved wireframes
- Clickable prototype - static or HTML-based
3. Technical evaluation
During the discovery phase of software projects, we analyse your requirements as well as perform a technical assessment of the software product development to ensure feature extensibility, scalability, and security. This takes into account some of the requirements that may not necessarily be required in the MVP but would be useful to have in the future versions of the product.
Deliverables
- Technical architecture
- High-level database schema
- Recommendation on technology choice (database and development technologies)
- Technical risk assessment
- System performance requirements assessment
- Recommendation on cloud platform (if needed)
4. Defining MVP scope & budgeting
We put together all the information gathered during the requirements analysis process and perform an estimation exercise to conclude the discovery phase. This final stage includes the crucial activity of “requirements scrubbing” - discussions on what items are absolutely essential for MVP, which ones are good to have, and which ones can come later.
Deliverables
- Detailed scope outline
- Cost estimates
- Indicative timelines
- Recommendation on development team
Ready to discuss your ideas?
Talk to UsWhat we need from you
To understand your project better, it is ideal if you provide us with the following important details. If you don't have them, we work closely with you to develop these at the beginning of the software discovery phase.
Product Idea
It may seem obvious but your most critical contribution throughout the project lifetime is to effectively communicate your idea to us. Share your research on the idea, and any surrounding knowledge, so we can have a full understanding of what you want.
Preliminary Feature List
Since your project’s complexity and scope directly affect its cost, it is good to be clear about what features and functionality you want your software to have. This does not have to be a final list of features but should help us in fair cost estimation at the discovery stage.
Wireframes/Rough Sketches (If Available)
If you have drawn up a few sketches of what you want your app to look like, it can help us understand your requirements better. If not, don’t worry! Developing wireframes is a key part of our formal discovery phase for all software projects.
References of Competitors
If you aim to develop software that competes with some other existing products, send us some references so we understand what exactly it is that you are looking for and how we can make your product stand out.
Technical Specifications (If Available)
Let us know if you have some specific technical requirements – such as your preference for a particular development platform or technology stack – you want us to follow for your software development plan.
Software Discovery Team
Business
Analyst
UI/UX
Designer
Technical
Architect
Looking to validate your project idea?
With our software discovery services, you can book consultation sessions with our experts to evaluate your software product idea.
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