How to accurately calculate how much money and time it will take to develop a software product? How to quickly and efficiently check the understanding of tasks set by the client? How to effectively communicate at the design stage of the projec? We talk about it in our video blog, and in text form here on the ITQsoftware website.
We return to the story about the stages of creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). An MVP is a product that has minimal but sufficient features to meet the needs of the first customers. It is created to get feedback from the market and generate hypotheses for further product development.
All in all we divide the process of MVP creation into three main stages: design, production, development. In turn, each of these stages is divided into sub-stages. So, if we’re talking about design, we can distinguish:
- Analytical design (business process design)
- Technical design (architectural design and resource plan)
The Main Roles: Without Whom Can Not Do?
At the analytical design stage, two roles are fundamental: Business Analyst (BA) and Product Owner (PO). Their task is to quickly (in 2-4 weeks) give a rough estimate of the financial and time resources that will be needed to implement the MVP. At the technical design stage, the architect gets involved; he develops the top-level architecture.
In a previous episode on our YouTube channel we talked in detail about how to combine the customer’s ideas with reality, define the perimeter of the future MVP, understand what is possible to implement and how much time it will take. You can watch this video here: MVP, business process design
In today’s video we’ll take a deeper look at the topic. Our guest is our expert Anna Senkina, who shares her expertise, her tools for visualization and for turning fascinating ideas into a realizable action plan.
Structure of the Work on the Analytical Project
First, the business analyst interviews the product owner. This can be the owner himself or another designated person. The product owner must have full knowledge of the future product
Immediately after the first meeting, our experts create sketches of the screens. Product visualization helps everyone involved in development understand how the product will look and how certain components will work
Then the analyst and product owner discuss the results and make changes if necessary.
Depending on the complexity of the product, the analyst can use different tools to create mockups and diagrams.
Anna Senkina:
Everything here is individual, you choose a tool to your liking. I chose Moqups for sketches and Lucidchart for charts. For me, these tools are very convenient and clear.
Next comes the technical design stage.
We invite the architect in, talk about the product, its goals and features, show the sketches and diagrams and discuss them.
Based on the mocaps and diagrams, the architect develops the project architecture and defines the technology stack.
In the next step, we work with the architect to develop a top-level development plan, defining the steps, timeline and cost.
Anna Senkina:
When developing the plan, we adhere to the principle “promise less, do more”.
Why so Much Preparatory Work? We Want to Get Started as Soon as Possible!
Two-stage design (analytical and technical) allows you to determine the time frame and budget with a fairly high degree of accuracy. After all, they directly depend on the size of the team and the amount of work. And to understand the amount of work, you need to design the business processes to be automated, and then make a technical design.
The project can be very detailed and take hundreds of pages, or it can be quite compact. So we are for compactness and effective use of time, and we try to fit the initial assessment into 2-4 weeks. And, in our experience, this gives us an estimate with a deviation of no more than 50%, not 100%, and certainly not 500%. We did not invent these monstrous figures, but took them from real customer cases, when a customer turned to us after dealing with unscrupulous performers.
ITQsoftware team congratulates you with the first working days of the year and wishes you and your business progressive achievement of the most ambitious goals in the coming 2022!
Happy New Year!