What is the software discovery phase?

The discovery phase of a software project is an initial stage in the development process where the project's scope, goals, and feasibility are thoroughly evaluated. This discovery phase of software development involves understanding the client's needs, identifying potential challenges, and establishing clear objectives. It serves as a roadmap for the entire project, ensuring that the team and stakeholders are aligned before moving forward.

What should be included in the discovery phase of a project?

During the discovery phase of a project, several key elements should be included:Requirement analysis: Detailed gathering of all the project requirements from stakeholders.Market research: Understanding the competitive landscape and market needs.Feasibility Study: Assessing the viability of the project.Resource planning: Estimating the resources (time, budget, workforce) needed for the project.Risk assessment: Identifying potential risks and preparing mitigation strategies.

What is the discovery phase of a project in Agile?

In Agile, the project discovery phase is more dynamic and iterative. It involves the following:Collaborative planning to define the project scope and objectives in an adaptable manner.User stories and backlog creation that outline the functionality and features of the final product.Sprint planning to address different aspects of the project.Iterative feedback gathering to regularly review progress and adapt plans.The discovery software development in Agile projects is important for setting a flexible yet clear direction, accommodating changes and new insights as the project evolves.

How to plan a discovery phase?

As a rule, the discovery phase of a software project starts with defining clear objectives - what problem you’re solving and what success looks like. Assemble a team that includes stakeholders, analysts, designers, and developers to cover all perspectives. Then, analyse the market, study competitors, and gather user insights to map out requirements and identify risks. Prototyping helps test assumptions early, preventing costly mistakes later. Once validated, estimate the scope, timeline, and budget. Finally, document everything to guide the next phase. Contact us to plan your discovery phase of software development project.

What is the discovery phase roadmap?

The discovery phase roadmap starts with goal alignment and stakeholder interviews to gather insights. Next comes market research, competitor analysis, and user research to define pain points and opportunities. A technical feasibility check ensures the right tools and integrations. Prototyping and user testing help validate ideas before moving forward. Once the scope, timeline, and budget are set, the phase wraps up with a final report summarising key findings and recommendations, setting the stage for development. Contact us to prepare your product discovery roadmap.

Discovery Phase of a Software Project 🔎🕵️

Key outcomes of the discovery phase

01 Project vision document

02 Preliminary specifications

03 Tech vision

04 Roadmap

05 Wireframes design concept

This document outlines the main goals of your project and clearly states the problem, solution, and key features. From now on, you can identify your value proposition and target audience, monetisation strategy, and key performance indicators.

The specifications contain a structured backlog. It captures functional and non-functional requirements and information about the tech stack. It is written in epics and separate user stories to better understand the scope and allow proper planning.

This document contains information about the tech stack, infrastructure architecture, key risks, the list of all necessary third-party integrations, and verified estimation of your project.

This is a visualised plan of your future project that captures goals (long and short-term), priorities, deliverables, and a list of actions the development team will perform.

Wireframes of key user screens and the UX roadmap clearly show the solution’s design and how its elements will interact.

For enterprises

Integrating new technologies into existing systems is often a real headache, causing disruption and inefficiencies. However, with proper planning at the beginning, we identify and solve all emerging issues early on. So, you get smoother integration, reduce risks, and support long-term growth.

Optimise development cost

Due to accurate project specifications, agreed architecture, and technology stack, you can schedule the development stages and prioritise the tasks. Eventually, you get faster progress, lower costs, and great software with zero headaches.

Predict project outcomes

The discovery phase allows you to divide your big project into smaller milestones called user stories and use cases to describe and confirm how the specific feature should work. Which, in turn, leads to successful results.

Altamira produced superlative deliverables that provide valuable information to guide internal operations and support sales processes.

The team was receptive to feedback, adapting resources to ensure effective collaboration.

CTO, SOLJETS

Ryan Crawford

eCommerce USA

Powerful web platform for aircraft brokerage.

Services we provided

Discovery
Web application development

Communication was excellent and my original idea became real thanks to the brilliant work of Business Analysts and Project Managers. Their prompts were always on time, hence there were no misunderstandings in the process.

I am absolutely satisfied with how my app looks and functions. It is exactly what I wanted to get when I decided to go with this team.

CEO & Co-founder, Aquiline Drones

Barry Alexander

eCommerce USA

A mobile large-scale project for the development of innovative drones for various needs, both civilian and government agencies, and the creation of digital services for them.

Services we provided

Discovery
Mobile application development

At first, I felt hesitant about trusting such a complex project to outsource developers. But, fortunately, my concerns appeared to be absolutely unfounded. Altamira team did amazing job! And I was pleasantly surprised by how well-established processes they have.

CTO, Ticker Tocker

Jonathan Kopnic

Fintech USA

Trading platform development with education, broadcasting, and social networking modules, just to name a few. This intuitive platform helps to earn by trading and selling trading-related products.

Services we provided

Discovery
Vendor audit
Web and mobile application development

Being deeply invested in the education sector, it was quite a challenge to find a software development partner capable of understanding and delivering on our vision. Altamira rose to the occasion, meeting our expectations with the development of our educational solution.

Their holistic approach was evident in how professionally they integrated our ideas with their expertise, resulting in a product that totally meets our goals.

CEO, Elula

Deveren Fogle

EdTech USA

Revolutionary empowerment tool for neuropsychological assessments and child’s academic success.

Services we provided

Web and mobile application development
Artificial Intelligence

It has been an absolute pleasure working with the team at Altamira. We have never been blocked or impeded by their work. They operate efficiently and quickly to get the job done.

CEO, CTRL Golf

Ian Cash

Health USA

Golf training app that helps players improve their unique golf style, including a deep configuration of the swing goal, great visual support, advanced algorithms, and effective feedback.

Services we provided

Discovery
Mobile application development
Software development

Altamira helped us to shape the future of music by launching our disruptive publishing tool scodo. What I appreciate most in working with them is their incredibly structured approach while keeping a strong focus on reaching our project’s goals. And of course all of that paired with highly talented and likeable people across the board.