In this post, let's talk about Preparation for the Discovery engagement and find out what BAs and other team members need to do to ensure that the team is ready to run onsite (or remote) discovery workshops.
Tip #1 - Ask a Lot of Questions
First and foremost - you'll need to ask a lot of questions and collect all the information that is already known about the project, client, business domain, or related technology.
My rule of thumb is to reach out to the Project manager or the Account manager that led the Presale phase and schedule a quick 30 min check-in. During this check-in, I would ask to share relevant knowledge, PowerPoint documents, schedules, and important emails that have been collected or produced during the presales. You'll find a ton of helpful information there already.
Besides, please get in touch with other members of your organization that have been involved in work for this client in the past, and get their advice on what to look out for. My recommendation would be to get in touch with other BAs, Solution Architects, or Product owners to get some insights on this client or the upcoming project.
Don't forget to find out what are the formal deliverables, expected as the outcomes of the Discovery. Sometimes clients may not know it and we need to advise. As a general rule of thumb, consider at least having the MVP feature list, and the Solution Architecture document at the end of the discovery engagement. Ensure that the list of outcomes is formally listed in the statement of work or the contract for the Discovery so that both you and your client are clear on the expected results.
Tip #2 - Assemble Discovery Team
After you collected all the input information or in parallel with that, start assembling your All-Star Discovery Team. Individual team members may wear many hats and one person may combine several roles. But it's always a good idea to ensure you have the Consulting Lead, Business Analyst, Solution Architect, and Project Manager on your team.
Depending on how staffing processes work in your organization it may take some time to identify and approve individuals for these roles, so whoever joins first will need to help others to get up to speed. All successful teams are comprised of folks that support one another and share a dedication to success.
Similarly, it's a good idea to get some input from the client on who they will assemble as their discovery SME team.
Tip #3 - Create Discovery Agenda
Now let's talk about the discovery Agenda. The agenda is one of the most important documents you'll need to produce during the preparation stage, and maintain during the discovery execution.
Agenda tells everybody what is the duration of the discovery workshops, what meetings happen when, what is the sequence of those meetings, who is going to lead, and who is invited. This last thing is very important so that the client may set expectations for their employees and arrange their availability in advance so that they will join your meetings!
Let's look at a sample agenda below. You can see, we have time slots reserved for breaks and daily syncs, we have the kick-off at the beginning and the wrap-up session at the end. We also have some specific workshops and interviews during the week. Of course, depending on your specific discovery, there will be different timelines and workshops that you'd want to include.
In my experience the agenda is always a co-owned document, meaning that all discovery team members need to add their topics and synchronize with each other on what workshops and interviews they want to have and when. We also want to make sure that the client is involved from day one and that they co-own the agenda together with the team.
Tip #4 - Other Artifacts
In addition to the agenda, our team will need to compile other artifacts that we will use during the discovery. Depending on your situation, these can be questionnaires, some standard out-of-the-box feature lists, product demos, or standard workflows.
Tip #5 - Arrange Logistics
Don't forget about the logistics and make all necessary travel arrangements to ensure that your onsite visit goes smoothly. Typically, team members would expect the project manager or the travel department to help with the logistics and travel arrangements.
Learn More
Interested in learning more? Check out my Discovery crash course on Udemy, where I teach business analysts and product owners all the fundamentals of requirements discovery (typical stages, team structure, meeting types, outcomes, and common mistakes) within less than one hour!
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