UXDLAB SOFTWARE

Software Development

Discovery Phase in Software Development Project

Startups, influencers, or common people come up with the concept of a software project. In such cases, before experts initiate the development process, it is very crucial and important to get an entire level of understanding of whether the project or service will be able to satisfy customer’s needs and meet the market strategies. To prevent the project failure, and get the expected results in a good way it is better to get the proper analysis of the overall project domain and get a wider vision of it and get the expected results. Common Reasons Behind Business Failure in the Early Years Lack of business model Lack of passion and innovation project or service do not have a market Users don’t find the project useful Extreme usage of budget and delivery deadline Communication problems lead to project failure Not aware of the pain points and user roles Lack of awareness of about the gaps in the modules Endless Scope Creep Many More…  Why you Need to Start your Project with the Discovery Phase The Discovery phase is a process of collecting and organizing project information that helps startups, influencers, or common people to prioritize features, determine their target audiences, get a better understanding and direction to their final requirements. It is a procedure of project lifecycle which includes requirement gathering, in-depth analysis of client’s requirements, examine the customer needs and their expectations, check the project or service efficiency and feasibility, get a wider vision about the technical specifications, their logics, and functionalities. This phase is a bridge between the theoretical concept and realization of the project.  In fixed-cost projects, the discovery phase is the best practice for initiating the project. In agile, the discovery phase helps to establish a broader vision, project scope, and an initial milestone-based plan for the delivery of the project. Who is Involved in this Process? Company’s Representative  Sales Head Business Analysts Estimation Team and Technical Heads Project Coordinates Discovery Basic Components and Flow Stages of Discovery Phase The following are the seven main stages of the discovery phase of a software development project. Let’s look at each stage in greater detail. Initial Contact From here, everything gets started. Any potential client, company, or agency comes up with their project ideas. We get an insight into what they want and provide them with a rough estimation. If the estimation is within the client’s financial plan (budget), we schedule their first call with the company’s technical head and sales head to understand the must-have features and create a detailed estimation of the project. If the client agrees to it, we recommend the discovery phase contract. On an initial understanding of the requirement, an introductory feature list document that contains the time (hours) and cost values are submitted to the client. A rough estimation is free of charge. Doing this assists the company to understand and make a decision to proceed or cease the collaboration. If the client agrees to continue, we do the following: Estimate how much time and money the planning phase is going to take. Sign a contract. Initiate the discovery phase. Analyzing and Planning Details This is the major stage where business analysts and technical heads make sure the project provides what the business needs to grow. Business goals will utter the project’s whole feature set. To get a more clear perception, they collect the input data like: What problems are you currently facing in the project? What are the must-have features? What comparative projects as of now exist, and what will separate your project from them? What technology and platform do you want to support? What is your target audience? Many More… Here, we need the active participation of business analysts, technical heads, and the client where they will discuss the overall purpose, pros, and cons, feasibility of the project. If the client is not sure about it, then the company’s team members help them to solve their queries. It generally ranges between 1 to 3 meetings a week. Project Specifications After getting the final answers to the questions which were discussed in the previous stage. That helps us to create the feature list and final tech requirements. The specification is a document where every data related to the project or service is documented. It contains: Detailed Feature List: This document contains the required fields of each module including technical and functional requirements. Flowcharts: These are the visual representation diagrams which explain the step by step execution flow of the process and how users get redirected to the respective screens or website pages. Wireframes After getting more clarity, Wireframes come into the picture. Wireframes are the blueprint of the application or website where each element is placed in the respective app screens and website pages. It is one of the UI/UX design services we provide before development. This guides the client more about the components and navigation flow of the project. Further, changes are always welcomed. Clients can add comments or pen down their suggestions. Based on that we can make the adjustments. Wireframes need to be approved before we move further. Detailed Estimation Software Developers, UI/UX designers, and everyone else involved studying the specification and wireframes to estimate the time needed to implement each feature and build the project. If the client finalizes, then we proceed towards the design and development phase. Design Afterward, the UI/UX of the respective application or website is carried out. The font, colors, typography, logo are involved where clients view the realization of the project. Based on the industry standards and protocols a seamless, beautiful, and functional design is created that offers something unique and covers every logical aspect including the user experience. Depending on their complexity, designs can take from 10% to 30% of your overall project budget. Technical Documentation (SRS) This is the main document where screen wise each project feature is explained with the logic and their functionality. It includes all information about the project which contains the purpose, intended audience (user types),

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Value Stream Management – a Sureshot Way to Improve the Software Delivery from Idea to Production

The rapid creation of digital products using DevOps, DevSecOps, and Agile practices, as a rule, guarantees the best performance. However, the high speed of software development does not always lead to the desired results. The search for new ways to help achieve goals not only for individual teams but for the entire business led to the discovery of Value Stream Management – a method of managing the value stream that combines the culture, tools and methodologies of Agile, Lean, DevOps, and DevSecOps. Value Stream Management (VSM) solutions, when used for software development; perform the same function as, for example, a GPS navigator for drivers. They provide complete information about the process, including the point of departure, destination, and context (a general understanding of the situation), show the current location, give a forecast of arrival time, and also provide recommendations for optimizing the route. That is, they control and help to improve the software creation process from start to finish. VSM is designed to control the stream of creating value. From a business perspective, value is something that can be used by the consumer and bring profit to its creator. A value stream consists of steps that add value. Value stream and value stream map are not new concepts. They are borrowed from lean manufacturing (Lean) and are widely used in various types of production and project management, where they have proven their effectiveness. The production of a digital product is intangible and is a “black box” for business owners. A digital product moving along the development pipeline cannot be touched and reviewed until its final release. The list of the developer’s tasks looks like an ancient manuscript to an ordinary business owner. Without deep understanding and visualizing the entire end-to-end stream, it is hard not only to optimize the development process but also to manage it. VSM allows you to see the entire value stream, identify unnecessary activities and reduce costs. In other words, VSM allows you to implement the principles of lean manufacturing in the production of intangible products like software. VSM solutions help define and organize the value stream at the fastest possible speed along the shortest route by consolidating data from various DevSecOps tools and displaying it in a single form on a single dashboard. These solutions enable businesses to see: At what stage is the product development now? What is slowing down the release of a product? With what strategic goals of the company is this or that task consistent? What is the current interdependence between teams and projects? VSM solutions provide tremendous benefits for large teams building complex products. Solutions of this class are designed to optimize the development process and its relationship with the business’s strategic goals. VSM allows you to manage software projects so that each action adds value to the product; thus, you can make the most of all available resources – labor force, time, equipment. Let us take a look at what the Value Stream Management solution consists of. Planning Planning the development process with the help of VSM allows you to manage releases using Agile best practices across the entire enterprise: when many teams are involved and a huge number of projects, and when there are intricate interdependencies between projects and teams. If you go back to our example with a GPS navigator, you get a map of a large city with traffic lights, highways, and one-way streets. Orchestration The orchestration of development tools, when you track the status of each project, allows you to: Detect bottlenecks in the pipeline. Unify and standardize processes. Integrate security into the production cycle to avoid possible cyber attacks in the future. Integrate compliance. Automate the steps required to release applications, including manual production steps. Analytics Analytics helps to understand the infinity of events and reveal hidden trends in the production cycle. DevOps tools generate a large amount of data that is consolidated and visualized in the form of metrics, reports, etc. Advanced analytics provided by VSM uses machine learning algorithms to predict the arrival time (our GPS analogy) and make recommendations for route optimization. Software development is economically justified if the final product is valuable to the consumer who finds benefit in certain functionality. It is particularly important to be able to quickly prioritize new product features and therefore redirect investments if needed. As an Agile-based tool, the VSM solution allows you to: View data on how team members are distributed between business tasks and projects. Organize interaction between teams. Track dependencies. Continuously track progress and performance, both at the team and project levels, with metrics, reports, and analytics generated from DevOps tools and planning roadmaps. As a result of the adoption of a VSM solution, the company acquires the ability to identify weaknesses in the software development process, find reasons why deadlines are sometimes not met, and also receives metrics on how the value is delivered to customers. Value Stream Management is a useful navigator needed to improve the management of software development process that offers accurate data visualized in a simple and understandable way. Blog Source- https://www.mindinventory.com/blog/value-stream-management/

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