5 main reasons to consider a Scoping Workshop before the project kickoff
What is the best way to evaluate the idea and turn it into a digital product?
Obviously, the good approach is to make a clear plan of execution, timeline and budget. Usually, people start with research or business analysis. However, it can take a lot of time and bring up more questions than answers.
Another way is to set up a brainstorming session and invite all team members. In this case, the meeting can turn into an endless discussion where each participant will try to assert their point or idea.
We see that the most effective approach to defining the product backlog, evaluate development direction and choose the technology is to conduct a scoping workshop. With the structured agenda this is the best way to facilitate instead of dive into never-ending and worthless brainstorming.
What is scoping or ideation workshop?
Scoping or ideation workshops are full-day sessions where all the parties discuss the details of the vision and project.
It is the perfect solution when the requirements are on the general level, and the company does not have the capability to define the product backlog very precisely.
They are also a great starting point of the project, to let all people dive deeply into details and understand the objectives and vision of the product to be developed.
The scoping session and its outcomes help to prepare a clear plan and as the result, speed up the kick-off of the product.
Why consider a scoping workshop?
#01 All stakeholders are on the same page
A scoping workshop is not only the method to create requirements for the project, but also a good way to kick-off the project with all the parties — the Client, developers, designers, project managers and other stakeholders, and allow all of the people to align with the vision, language and objectives.
#02 Startups vs Enterprises project initiation
There are many different approaches to project planning depending on the type of the project and the company — e.g. startups need more discussion on user flows, vision or objectives while normal companies mostly discuss real user cases, existing processes or goals related to improvements within existing teams or departments.
The difference is not big when it comes to the workshop phases, however, there are different starting points for such discussions (more unknowns in startups and more legacies in enterprises).
#03 Established roles and responsibilities
Identifying key roles along with their responsibilities will ensure efficient work during the whole project and better communication between all the parties.
#04 Predictable budget
A scoping session is a good starting point to determine project feasibility without wasting budget on many trials and errors. It’s a proven way to explore and validate ideas, and what is more important, be able to turn it into MVP or POC right after.
You might already found a CTO and a couple of great IT guys, however, the project initiation phase is not only about choosing the tech stack. It is a vital step to define how technology and business will work side by side.
#05 Defined scope and direction for development
It is a crucial point where you define what should be delivered in the form that the project manager or developers can understand.
In the modernization project, it is relatively easier to define deliverables instead of a startup where the initiation phase is often a collection of assumptions that should be transformed into the project scope (software requirements).
What’s next? Find 26 project discovery questions you can use for your scoping session 👇
