Managing the Discovery Process

Planning for Discovery During the course of a Threekit visual configuration project, an expectation should be set for discovery. Discovery may occur during the design phase of the project, during the implementation phase of the project, or even during the testing phase of a project.

Discovery is a natural occurrence during the course of a project but it needs to be managed properly. Although discovery is encouraged, there are ways to simplify, such as:

• Establish guiding principles of delivery & model quality standards

• Establish a minimum viable product (MVP) delivery package

• Establish a "fairway" concept - identify scope items that reflect the 80% use case

At a high level, there are three basic ways discovery can be managed:

1. If the customer desires the new scope to be implemented within the current project, a change order must be issued to cover the additional scope.

2. The new scope can be moved to a later phase for implementation (a separate project)

3. Current scope of approximate equal level of effort can be removed from scope to accommodate the new discovery scope.

The client should form a Change Management Board to review all new requests and render a decision as to whether or not the new scope should be included within the current project or should be pushed to a later phase (new project).

Following production release, the client's Change Management Board should be responsible for all program updates going forward.