The cost of skipping the discovery phase in development

Often, clients reach out to development agencies with a need to get a successful product to the market as quickly as possible. Entrepreneurs appreciate the main software development project phases, including design, implementation, testing, deployment, and post-launch maintenance. These steps are synonymous with the common project life cycle which can be categorized into five stages including initiation, planning, execution, control, and closure.

When a project goes through these stages without cutting corners, the chances of success is big. But underestimating the importance of the initial stages before actual development can cause failure.

What is the discovery phase of a project?

The discovery phase is the process of collecting and analyzing information about the project, and its proposed market and audience. A project’s discovery phase should go hand in hand with the initiation and transition into planning.

Why do businesses skip this phase?

Often, businesses decide to skip this phase as “the concept is clear” and they want to save money. But eventually, this decision can lead to extra costs and unmet deadlines. If done right, the project discovery phase should actually be all about money-wise product development.

Billions of dollars are wasted each year building products that don’t meet requirements, mostly because the requirements were never clearly defined or understood. 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 estimates that approximately one-third of large software projects are never completed. Much of the huge losses from these failed projects can be attributed to poor requirements definition.

This quote from the amazing 1989 book by Gerald Weinberg is as true today, as it was 32 years ago.

How skipping the discovery phase can lead to failure

When businesses don’t invest in a Discovery phase, product teams risk placing misguided time, energy and money into projects. The impact of this can usually be felt across the business and management’s confidence in development may become undermined. Skipping discovery can result in the following:

• Never-ending scope creeps: A lack of measurable expected results can lead to constant extensions of project duration, which ultimately, delays release.

• High unnecessary costs: Goals and requirements that are unclear generate changes in direction with further increases in associated costs.

• Missed deadlines: Without specific project boundaries, the development timeline can quickly stretch out, postponing the launch of the project.

• Not meeting client expectations: A misunderstanding at the initial stage of cooperation can lead to a lot of confusion further down the line. This can waste valuable time and money.

These points may seem like common-sense knowledge, yet many businesses still choose to skip the discovery and plunge into development without a clear vision. The results are always disastrous.

The Bottom Line

At Access, we believe that discovery is an important step in any product’s development life cycle. In fact, one of our favorite mantras is “an hour spent in planning saves you at least 10 hours in development”.

Though, the amount of time you should spend in discovery depends on various factors specific to the product and team, including the level of risk tolerance and understanding the end-user.

If you want to avoid costly mistakes and get a better sense of the true cost of development for your upcoming eCommerce project, contact us for a free consultation now.

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