Pre-project documentation: what is it and why is it so important?

Among my friends there is no one who would love to write technical tasks or something like that. Draw on napkins plans to capture the universe, collect layouts from multi-colored stickers, polish the concept in the head and in words - everyone loves and knows how to do it, but sit down and write down how it should be ...
For example, any template of a serious document immerses me in the deepest deadlock.

My friends have a lot of good ideas, but with such an approach, thank God, it rarely comes to production. Why? Badly designed projects are rarely successful. Either the team is completely stuck in those works that were not visible at the beginning, or it turns out a crooked, ill-adapted goblin. Badly scalable to the same.

The need to formulate, many times to answer the question “What?” Or “For whom?” Is only useful for the idea. This work allows you to get rid of the husk and test the idea of ​​strength. In addition, pre-project documentation is needed in order to save time and money - the more carefully you think about the project at the beginning, the faster and better it will be made.
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There are a huge number of methods for collecting and analyzing data, the darkness of software development methodologies, but so far there is not a single one that could be used without hesitation in web development. And to hell with it, with the methodology! A good pre-project documentation has four components - a business concept, an analysis of the market and competitive environment, product requirements, and mockups. About this and talk.

Why do we need pre-project documentation?

Pre-project documentation is needed, first of all, as a point of support - we need to rely on something when making decisions. It's great when this support is objective.

The main task of the pre-project documentation is to clarify. Answer the question “What, for whom and how are we doing?” And get the data necessary to answer the question “Is it worth it at all?”.

Successful pre-project documentation serves as an excellent basis for writing functional requirements, technical specifications, user documentation, strategic plan, press releases; and also for coordination of details of the project with adjacent divisions and the management.
Before the start of spending expensive programmer man-hours, it should be noted!

In addition, successful pre-project documentation allows predicting the scale of disasters with very high accuracy - to estimate the costs of developing the main and additional functionality, to draw up a project budget.

What problems will help avoid successful pre-project documentation?

I have already said that high-quality pre-project documentation allows, first of all, to check the conceptual and economic feasibility of the original idea.
The more thoroughly the main issues are thought out at first, the less extra man-hours will be spent on reworking, finishing, stretching ... It is easier to choose the best technical solution when you understand what you are going to do and how you will develop further.

What does a good pre-project documentation consist of?

Business concept, market and competitive environment analysis, functional requirements, graphic layouts - these are the four components of a good pre-project documentation.

Consider more closely each component.

Business concept

Business concept is the most important document. This document addresses the following issues: the essence and content of the business (what) , the audience / consumer (for whom) , the business model (where the loot is) and competitive advantages (why our elephants) .

In addition, the business concept defines the intended niche, the strategy for market penetration (market entry) and the business development strategy.

A successful business concept is an excellent base for writing a press release, user manual and making a wide variety of decisions.

Market and competitive analysis

After we figured out what, how and for whom we are going to do and why cut the loot, it would be nice to make sure that the market is ready for our genius.

(This stage to some extent goes hand in hand with writing a business concept; it is obvious that competitors must be studied to write a section on competitive advantages)

Product Requirements (Functional Requirements)

Functional requirements is a document that complements and expands the business concept. He answers the question "How?".

Layouts

What is the layout everyone knows, but not everyone knows that these are not just pictures. Each graphic layout is the result of mass data analysis. It is an exact science.

(I will tell about this on Wednesday in the article “Design is not a picture, design is a process”).

The ideal pre-project documentation has a fifth component - the guideline.

Guideline

This is a technical specification of a graphic concept. Why spend valuable time on this? Because in the end it will save resources. Firstly, the guideline will save you from further need to think about such things as the location of certain elements. Secondly, it will save the designer from having to answer the question “What distances are there?” One hundred thousandth time. Thirdly, you document the code, what design is worse?

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So, a good pre-project documentation allows you to clarify, serves as a foothold for decision-making, answers the questions “What are we doing and for whom?”, “Where do we get the money from?”, “Who are these people who will bring us the money”, “Why do they will it be borne by us? ”and“ Who can prevent our enrichment? ”.

Good pre-project documentation is an exhaustive foundation for a detailed technical task, project budget, user manual, advertising brochures and other merchandising.

Besides:

• it saves you time and money
• clarifies
• makes you think again (many times)
• if you have good pre-project documentation, the world is already at your feet