Nowadays it’s unreasonable to start a software development project without a preliminary comprehensive analysis. Discovery phase should become an initial stage of any project you deal with. It’s an information-gathering procedure, which brings you in-depth comprehension of the industry, the client’s business, and target audience.

1. Discovery
Phase
What is it and why is it important?
White Paper

2. What is a Discovery Phase?01
Nowadays it’s unreasonable to
start a software development
project without a preliminary
comprehensive analysis.
Discovery phase should become
an initial stage of any project you
deal with. It’s an information-
gathering procedure, which
brings you in-depth
comprehension of the industry,
the client’s business, and target
audience.
It’s important to gain a profound
understanding of the
stakeholders’ anticipations of the
product and the end-users’
expectations as to it. The main
aim of the preliminary analysis is
providing a quotation to the
customer. For the purpose, you
have to gather the maximum
possible details about the client’s
needs and put it in a separate
document.
All the details found out in the
course of the discovery help you
to scope and plan your project
and benefit to the delivery of the
state-of-art custom software
product to your client. To deliver
really cutting-edge products do
not underestimate the discovery
phase!

3. What do we need the analysis for?
To find out the motives, the aims,
and the problems of the users
How long should the discovery be?
For small projects
1–3 days
For mid-sized projects
1–2 weeks
For large projects
3–4 weeks
To find new ideas for product
development and new insights
To comprehend the context
of product usage
To understand what are the users’
expectations and attitude to the product

4. What do we do during the Discovery
Phase?
02
We aim to comprehend who our users are, what they need, and what the
product usage context is. We perform usability testing of the customer’s
product if it already exists, to find out how effectively and productively
the users can interact with it and how satisfied they are with the process.
If our customer does not have a ready solution, we analyse similar
products.
We prefer to test the competitor’s solutions to avoid their mistakes in
the process of the work for our customers.
In short — we make sure we understand the problem which should be
solved before designing and prototyping of the solution starts.
Analyse the subject
matter
Investigate our client’s
business processes
When conducting a preliminary analysis we:
We find out all the business procedures of our
client which already exist, even if not described
and try to define what they should be like.
It’s essential to understand all the business
processes which need to be implemented in the
end product.

5. We take the time to explore specifically who we are designing
for and how we should design things. Firstly we find out what
the client wants to see in the newly-developed product and
secondly who the current users of the alike products are and
what problems they experience.
Find out the customer’s expectations
as to the new product
Spot
bottlenecks
When conducting a preliminary analysis we:
It’s vital to identify and to fix the
bottlenecks of the product at the stage of
its development or optimization, as they
can cause a lot of problems later in terms
of a poor-quality product or services,
dissatisfied customers, wasted time, and
even lost revenue.
We confirm a good market fit of the product and offer our
client an accurate insight into the problems, which need to be
solved, and our realistic time and costs estimations of the
product development.
Formulate the solutions to the
customer’s problems at the high level

6. At this phase, we define the main features to develop,
bugs to fix, non-functional requirements to implement,
everything, what must be done in order to deliver a viable
solution to the customer.
The product backlog items (PBIs) are prioritized based on
such considerations as business value, risks,
dependencies, scope, and deadline due.
Set priorities and
define a backlog
Create a roadmap of
the project
When conducting a preliminary analysis we:
The result of a proper discovery phase is a strategic plan
defining the goal or the desired outcome of the project, which
as well includes the main steps and stages of it. It can also be
referred to as a communication tool, a document that helps to
express the strategic thinking — the why — behind both the
goal and the plan for getting there.
Here the initial brief and the requirements are shaped into a
final deliverable along with how the interconnected systems
come together to deliver the final solution.

7. What are the main benefits of a
Discovery Phase?
03
The benefits of the preliminary analysis and research are in fact multiple.
Quite often we face the StartUps,
which have an idea but do not have a
deep understanding of what the
project should be like and which
component parts it should contain.
It’s not rare that the customer
experiences difficulties to understand
what the future users really need.
Besides, due to the lack of technical
background, the clients often fail to
make a comprehensive list of the
required software elements.
We always propose a discovery phase
to our clients. The research is
conducted by our business analyst. He
or she communicates to the customer,
finds out the requirements and
analyses the market. Later on, the
team of a business analyst, a
developer, and a designer makes the
project description.
Such an approach minimizes the
amount of the alterations in the
development process because the
scope of the project is defined along
with the other key factors such as the
type of solutions, features, and
functionalities required, best
platforms to be used, timeframes to
fit in and costs to match.

8. By identifying all of the details in advance,
the client gains a number of benefits.
1. Honing of the idea and the essence of the project,
based on real analysis.
2. Finding out certain project aspects,which have not
been taken into consideration initially.
3. Customers’expectations and problems
comprehension,based on the competitors’products
research.
4. The opportunity to get an expert evaluation of the
project and the ways it can be brought to life as well
as an additional insight into the alternative
solutions and technologies offered by the contractor.
5. Cost optimization and minimization.
6. Creation of an accurate quotation,which defines
the accurate deadlines and budget of the project.
7. Avoiding the need of making costly changes
during the development process.
8. Achieving the balance between the business goals
of a client and the needs and wants of the users.
9. Getting the possibility to understand if the
contractor is a good fit to the client’s expectations,
how comfortable the interaction between them is
and the opportunity to make the final decision as
to the future cooperation.
The main of them are:

9. We always perform the expert evaluation of how the project
fits into the client's present infrastructure and operational
processes and recommend changes, improvements or updates
if they are necessary.
As soon as we understand the project background we try to
find and suggest our client's alternative solutions, which the
customer might not even realize are possible because he is
not a digital expert. We often find better or cheaper solutions
than initially planned by the client.
An additional bonus, which our client may receive as a result
of the discovery phase, is the clear project quotation, with the
scope and plan of works required and proper cost estimation.
With such a document he can turn to the potential investors
and get funding easier.
Through discovery, we lay the ground for the great project
experience, and provide valuable software solutions
customized for our clients’ needs.
Contact us
+380 67 334-40-40
Call:
stfalcon.sales
Skype:
info@stfalcon.com
Write: