Many clients come to the development agencies with a desire to get a successful product to the market as quickly as possible. The entrepreneurs appreciate the main software development project phases, such as design, implementation, testing, deployment, and post-launch maintenance. And very often, the discovery phase of the project is associated with unnecessary costs and occasionally, with the hopes of saving tens of thousands of dollars. However, the project discovery phase is all about money-wise product development.
Billions of dollars are squandered each year building products that don’t meet requirements, mostly because the requirements were never clearly understood.В
Relative cost to fix an error depending on the phase in which found:
- Requirements – 1
- Design – 3-6
- Coding – 10
- Development testing – 15-40
- Acceptance testing – 30-70
- Operation – 40-1000
This study covers only projects that were completed, but some observers estimated that approximately one-third of large software projects are never completed. Much of the enormous loss from these aborted projects can be attributed to poor requirements definition.
This quote is from an amazing 1989 book by Gerald Weinberg and it is as true today as it was 32 years ago.
Skipping discovery can result in the following:
- Never-ending scope creep. A lack of measurable expected results can cause constant extensions to project duration which delay release.
- Skyrocketing costs. Blurred goals and requirements generate changes in direction with further associated cost increases.
- Missed deadlines. Without precise project boundaries, the development timeline can easily stretch out, postponing launch.В
- A product that doesn’t meet client’s expectations. A misunderstanding at the initial stage of cooperation can lead to more confusion further down the line, wasting both time and money.
Yet with this common-sense knowledge, many businesses still choose to breeze through discovery and plunge into development without a clear vision or even basic alignment between the different business units. The results are always disastrous. This may explain why “an hour spent in planning saves you at least 10 hours in development” is one of our favorite work mantras.
We at Codifi believe that discovery is an important stage in the product development life cycle. However, the amount of time you should spend in discovery depends on a number of factors specific to the product and product team, including the level of risk tolerance and understanding the end-user.
Contact us for a free consultation so we can help you avoid costly mistakes and get a better sense of the true cost of development for your next eCommerce project!
