How Discovery Phase Helps to Choose the Best Vendor on the Market
When a company is choosing a software development services provider, vendors usually offer discovery calls and estimate the project. Discovery calls help to discuss business and technology needs and serve as a good basis for further estimates. A free estimate is a sufficient bonus giving a possibility to a potential client to compare several service providers and save costs.
Learn what is the purpose of a discovery phase and how it helps to develop a successful project.
What is a Discovery PhaseA discovery phase of an IT project is the basic stage before the development process begins. It is important for a project team and top management to invest time into their project development discovery because the discovery period is the time to collect essential data, determine and discuss functional and non-functional requirements, decide on tech stack, estimate costs, and plan the project development. An efficient discovery phase means that before the development process begins all the team members are on the same page, have the same vision of the business needs, understand goals and roles. And the client is aware of the estimated project cost and duration when an estimation follows the phase. |
A Discovery Phase Might Include 5 Steps
1. Discovery call
A discovery call is a first qualification meeting, where a potential client’s representative and prospective vendor(s) get to know each other.
From the vendor perspective, a sales manager, a project lead or both attend a discovery call. They demo their company brief, introduce company specialization and approaches to the client, etc. The representatives of the potential vendor company also should gain an understanding of the client requirements and business needs.
From the client perspective, the discovery call may be attended by a technical specialist or a business visioner. Chief technical officers usually have enough expertise in software development to present general technical requirements.
Business visioners may have no technical expertise and knowledge in software development. They present the vision of the future software: ideas and goals, tasks to solve. In this case, vendors act as business consultants — by the next stage, they prepare suggestions on the tech stack and an approximate number of developers.
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After the discovery call, both sides decide if they meet expectations and requirements of each other. It is suggested to get to know each other before any agreements are signed. Potential vendors also gather more information about the client project so they can decide which developers could be the best match.
2. Tech Call
A technical call is a meeting where vendors and a client proceed in project understanding and agree on the technical requirements.
Clients’ CTOs often know which tech stack they will use and which developers they need. On the tech call, they share with vendor(s) more detailed requirements for the vendor to negotiate and proceed with.
A small company or a startup may have no in-house technical specialists able to create technical requirements. In this case, the CTO of a potential software development vendor gives consultation and assists in developing the requirement list.
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After the tech call, the vendor and client are aware of the requirements and expectations of each other. Software development vendors have enough information about the project to proceed to the next stage and prepare an estimation of the project.
3. Project Estimation Development
Project estimation is a stage when a software development company analyzes all the available project data and calculates the approximate time, cost, and resources needed to deliver the project.
After a tech call, a development team with its tech lead answers the questions which influence the final cost of the project:
- how much time is needed for the solution design or Minimum Viable Product building
- does the project require DevOps engineers involvement
- should the final product be scalable
- does the project require best practices like dockerization and more
| Project estimation is a time- and effort-consuming task, which requires the effort of experienced technical specialists. Many software development companies make this service paid, while others keep it free for their clients’ comfort. |
Vendors’ teams demo and negotiate estimations during the next stage of the discovery phase.
4. Estimation Demo Call
An estimation demo is a stage when a vendor represents project estimation and gives their prospect client detailed information on the planned project cost.
An estimation reveals which parts of the project are expected to be the most time- and cost-consuming. At this stage, a client can change their requests and postpone the development of features which are off the budget or can be implemented later. This helps to optimize expenses and bring the project on budget.
After the estimation demo, a client can accept vendor offers or negotiate the request change.
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When the cost estimation is approved, a client is free to sign the agreement with their vendor and proceed to the development phase. A nice option would be to make a benchmark analysis and compare several vendors to choose the best offer on the market.
The Discovery Phase Helps to Build a Successful Project
The purpose of the project discovery phase is to give the client the possibility to determine the most efficient offer on the IT market. The discovery phase itself is not an agreement, it does not impose any obligations on the company looking for software developers. It is an instrument helping to start a project following best practices.
How does a discovery phase help to find the best vendor? Vendors analyze project requirements and give a detailed estimation before the client chooses the company to sign a contract with. Then the company compares several offers and chooses the most efficient plan with the best time to market and without budget exceeding.
Should you be interested in building efficient software, schedule a discovery call with Infinity Technologies and get a free estimation of your project.