Typical steps in a discovery phase
The goal of the discovery phase is to gather information and insights that will help inform the planning and execution of the project.
Here are the typical steps in a discovery phase:
Define the problem: This step involves defining the problem or opportunity the project aims to address. It's essential to clearly articulate the situation to identify the right stakeholders and ensure everyone is on the same page.
Gather information: In this step, you collect information related to the problem. This may involve conducting research, analyzing data, talking to stakeholders, and identifying constraints or limitations.
Identify goals: Once you clearly understand the problem, you can identify the goals you want to achieve. These goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
Analyze stakeholders: It's crucial to identify all the stakeholders involved in the project, understand their needs and expectations, and determine their level of involvement.
Develop a plan: Based on the information you've gathered and the goals you've identified, you can develop a plan that outlines the steps you need to take to achieve your objectives.
Define success metrics: To measure the success of your project, you need to define metrics that align with your goals. These metrics should be specific, measurable, and relevant to the project.
Which specialists are involved in the discovery phase?
🦁Project Manager
🐼Business analyst
🐯Technical Manager
🦄UI/UX Designer
🐘Backend | Frontend Developers
🐶Marketer
Accordingly, each of them performs a specific function and particular tasks. To do this, a specific pool of issues is created in the Jira Project, in which the teammates log time spent on the research. So, next, let's talk about how to estimate costs of the project discovery phase for the main workflows + expenses that accompanied this process.
Using Cost Tracker to monitor costs of the discovery phase
Let's look at generating cost reports of such stage of the discovery phase as Marketing Analysis.
The marketing team worked on market research, user persona, etc., for several weeks in April. In Jira, the team created relevant tasks for research, where they logged time.
Upon completion of the work, we generated a cost report showing the cost of the marketing analysis.
There were no one-time expenses in the current period - only payments for the usual tools (recurring expenses).
Next, we get the total cost of one of the discovery phase stages.
And then, accordingly, you can analyze the cost of each stage and, in the end, summarize the cost of the discovery phase in general.
It is also possible to monitor the cost of each task in the research project using the issue widget:
