Don't do too much #software design upfront. But, you also want to be intelligent about laying a foundation for the needs of the business.
Some of the questions you might want to consider at the beginning of a new product or project:
#SoftwareEngineer #SoftwareDeveloper
Some of the questions you might want to consider at the beginning of a new product or project:
#SoftwareEngineer #SoftwareDeveloper
- Should the system be structured in a way that reflects the business divisions in the current organizational structure?
- Should your software system be structured in a new way?
- Should your software system be structured in a new way?
- Will that affect how your organization ought to be structured (via Conway's law, cross-functional teams, etc.?)
- What are the expected performance, security and usability concerns?
- What are the expected performance, security and usability concerns?
- Are there any highly technical problems that can be isolated and approached as an independent system component?
- Are there any tough domain problems that can be isolated and approached in a focused and independent fashion?
- Are there any tough domain problems that can be isolated and approached in a focused and independent fashion?
- How can we split-up our upcoming products or features into smaller iterable chunks?
- How does this feature/product relate to other ones? Does it conflict with any know features or upcoming features?
- How does this feature/product relate to other ones? Does it conflict with any know features or upcoming features?
- Is there a need to integrate this new feature/product with existing ones? How ought we to plan for this?
- Are there any external systems of products we need to interact with? How will those affect our system?
- Are there any external systems of products we need to interact with? How will those affect our system?
- What is the core of this project/product/feature? What #1 problem does it solve? How can our architecture/design support this?
- Should we approach this feature as a long-running business process? Or is CRUD OK (it may be a supportive feature)?
- Should we approach this feature as a long-running business process? Or is CRUD OK (it may be a supportive feature)?
- Is there a need for robust auditing? If so, how will we approach this (history tables, event sourcing, etc.)
- Is there any technological piece that seems high-risk?
- Is there a complex domain problem that seems high-risk?
- Is there any technological piece that seems high-risk?
- Is there a complex domain problem that seems high-risk?
- How will we deal differently with the high-risk problems we are solving?
- What's the end goal of this project? (Reduced costs? More lead generation? Better usability for existing customers? Solve a specific customer problem? Address tech debt?)
- What's the end goal of this project? (Reduced costs? More lead generation? Better usability for existing customers? Solve a specific customer problem? Address tech debt?)
- Are there any pieces of our product or system that can be accomplished via off-the-shelf software?
- Do we have enough people to attack this within the expected time?
- If not, how are we going to manage that? (Just adding more ppl doesn't always work 🤔)
- Do we have enough people to attack this within the expected time?
- If not, how are we going to manage that? (Just adding more ppl doesn't always work 🤔)
- Are there any pieces of this product/feature that we could potentially open-source?
- Are there other ways we can build this in a more transparent way that will attract other software developers and ease future hiring?
- Are there other ways we can build this in a more transparent way that will attract other software developers and ease future hiring?
- Do we have any known bottlenecks in our #softwaredevelopment processes? Will they affect this project?
- Will this project potentially roadblock any other ones?
- Are there any other projects that need to be completed first?
- Will this project potentially roadblock any other ones?
- Are there any other projects that need to be completed first?
- What skills and strengths will be most required for this project? Do we have those skills in-house?
- How does this project/product align with the overall goal of the business? Does that affect how we should plan and implement this?
- How does this project/product align with the overall goal of the business? Does that affect how we should plan and implement this?
Can you think of any other questions like these?
