Scrum is to the organization what GTD is to the individual

Monday, February 26th, 2018

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This is a tricky one to navigate and think through. I’ll try my best to articulate my thoughts on Scrum, how it relates to GTD, and some new epiphanies I had about the roles they play in successfully creating software.

Org-mode and GTD are awesome tools for the individual because they clearly lay out all potential paths you could walk and has you start managing them via externalized memory and regular check-ins. In other words, these tools have you write down and outline all possible tasks and projects you may want to pursue. And in doing so, you directly face your list of all possible paths you can take, all possible action steps you can execute on.

And then you perpetually manage this system in regular intervals, always moving forward with your projects in some way.

A well implemented project management cycle is the same in any organization. Scrum tries to package itself as the project management solution to do this. Scrum attempts to be the organizational-level version of GTD. It attempts to externalize memory from the individuals on the team via wikis, issue trackers, and kanban boards. Sprint meetings and retrospectives are the Scrum analogues to GTD’s weekly reviews.

Some organizations are wildly successful with Scrum, while others are 100% mediocre.

Once you understand the value-add of both systems, you can begin to pick apart how users interact with both methodologies, why the methodologies fail in some instances, and why they succeed in others. Quick aside: Part of it is because GTD targets the individual, while Scrum targets the organization. And comparing the two reveals the values and weaknesses of each, particularly of Scrum (I’m not gonna delve too much into the dynamics here- but organizational level solutions almost always fail if the individual isn’t properly taken into account, which is why Scrum is more prone to weakness and failure than GTD when implemented).

So my epiphany is actually pretty simple- project management is probably a fractal pattern. It applies to the individual, the organization, and beyond.

While simple, there are some interesting conclusions on what this means for overall strategy.

At an ideal level, a developer is executing their own individual instance of project-management (eg. org-mode + GTD), the product-development department is executing their own organizational instance of project management (eg. project documentation + Scrum), and the business is doing it’s analogue as a whole (ie. the CEO + board of directors are managing their work as ideally as possible).

The major point is that the strategies align at every level of analysis. From the individual, to the organization, to the entire entity as a whole. The individual GTD-strategy can’t be compromised for the organization. But the organization can’t be compromised for the individual. All strategies have to be in harmony or it fails.

And thus, the key takeaway is that Scrum (or any organizational project management tool) must allow for the individual to implement their project management processes freely. The individual must be given the discretion to make seemingly arbitrary decisions. They must be given creative freedom. In short, they must allow the developer to execute on the tasks that they think are the highest value.

A couple of components of Scrum stick out as bottlenecks to this philosophy, particularly estimates and sprints. Creative freedom means developers aren’t locked into completing a particular subset of tasks, aka the sprint backlog, because they will naturally tackle the highest value tasks out of their own interest and affinity. Estimates are also a similar bottleneck in that they often establish an implicit contract for what gets completed and when. Which immediately eliminates the ability for the developer to work on necessary tangents in the project. AKA it removes the necessary discretionary and creative decisions developers must make and, as a result, will likely introduce it’s own form of technical debt, which leads to time and money costs and even further project delays.

Ultimately, a strategy aligned at the organizational and individual levels means that Scrum estimates don’t matter. If it means the developer doesn’t complete their assigned stories at all, then so be it.

Of course, it’s reasonable for stakeholders to know what was done instead of the assigned stories. If developers went off-the-road and worked on non-story tasks, it should result in exponential returns, since they are deliberately choosing to pursue higher-value tasks than the assigned stories. No one wants to spend their time on make-work, and if the assigned stories are later revealed to be make-work, then it’s better for developers to focus on higher-value aspects of the project. That’s the key value in giving developers creative freedom. That immediate ability to identify tasks that will be a waste of time, cull them, and move on to bigger and better project work.

Forecasting and estimates can play a role in giving semi-realistic projections that allow businesses to make decisions in other parts of the organization, so long as making these estimates is not more time-consuming than it needs to be and so long as all parties understand the volatility inherent in the forecast. (And if you’re interested in the non-linear dynamics of organizational strategy, this volatility can be used to your advantage. We don’t know what the reality of the marketplace is. We don’t know with 100% precision how the market will respond to our products. We don’t have an accurate picture as to the moves our competitors are going to make. By embracing volatility in our own product development, we are allowing our products to be developed in such a way that it will ultimately be a more accurate reflection of the marketplace than by the top-down imposition of what we guess it is).

Thus, based on what I’ve described here, as well as some of my observations of Scrum in general, I have a new attitude towards the methodology- Scrum isn’t inherently bad, but it seems to propagate mediocre dynamics just like the cubicle did. Instead of being leveraged for it’s strengths, and instead of culling out it’s weaknesses, Scrum is often used to impose predictability on an inherently unpredictable process. The results speak for themselves.

A good organization with quality project management is good in spite of Scrum. Because they’d be good anyway without it. The product leader “knows” the spirit of GTD even if he doesn’t know of GTD. AKA the same attitude and values that would drive him to adopt GTD if he knew of it, at least drive him to cull out make-work and to focus on high-priority tasks. He has the same values and therefore would inevitably implement a successful strategy, or find one that aligns with his values. Those same values would lead him to interfacing with the higher and lower levels of the organization with an acute awareness of the limits of forecasting. And if tasked with using Scrum as a methodology, he’d pick and choose the useful components of Scrum relative to the project’s needs and cull the weak parts without hesitation.

Turns out I don’t have an aversion to Scrum and to the idea of project management (hell, I love GTD). I just have an aversion to Scrum when it’s done in a nonharmonious fashion. AKA when it gets in the way of doing useful work rather than being a catalyst for it.

The effects of a dysfunctional Scrum project management cycle are worse for the individual in the short-term because it means the individual worker’s day-to-day life sucks and is closer to a psychological prison- no creative freedom, completion of backlog tasks that provide little-to-no real world value, inability to develop his skills as a developer (which otherwise would be compounding interest for the organization’s product development in general), etc. The organizational effects are worse in the long-term- while they might survive for 4-8 quarters on budgeting alone by “forcing predictability,” the effects will be more severe. The individuals in the organization learn to not complete the higher value work (since they don’t have the discretion to override the assigned tasks that in-development reveal themselves to be useless or make-work), and thus not build a product that more accurately reflects usefulness in the real-world. As a result, even if the project gets done on time, it will not be a product worth using. And thus, the organization, or at least that product, will probably die in the long-term.

In other words, by not embracing unpredictability and allowing for real-time micro-changes in the backlog, the organization will fail to get ahead of the real-world threats they do not perceive (competitors, market changes, etc.). They’ll force a model that grows stale and more wrong with each passing day. And they’ll do this to their peril.

Software Development Methodology Cheat Sheet

Sunday, March 9th, 2014

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Here is a quick software development methodology cheat sheet.

Note: There are many specific processes defined for some of the methodologies that are beyond the scope of this article. The main goal of this article is to give very high-level definitions of each methodology.

Waterfall - You do ALL of one phase, then ALL of the next, then ALL the next (eg. design -> coding -> testing).
Agile - Agile is a philosophy, not a step-by-step methodology¹. It is a set of attitudes about software development with the goal of improving communication and the overall development process for all parties involved. You are “agile” if you align yourself with the agile philosophy and make your actions in development reflective of that.
Scrum - A template of steps to follow for the development cycle. It is an implementation of agile- it is supposed to follow the principles and attitudes of the agile philosophy. At the same time, it actually gives you the steps that you can follow. In this methodology, you have a prioritized todo list, and you incrementally and iteratively complete chunks of the todo list. By performing incremental and iterative development, you allow requirements to be flexible and changeable since you are not committing to completing one entire phase before moving to another one (waterfall). Thus, the development process can better cope with inevitable changes.
Extreme Programming (XP) - XP is a methodology which implements a set of rules that you follow to optimize software development and make it easier to collaborate and work with a team while sustaining a high level of software quality. XP is an agile methodology as it aligns with agile principles.
Kanban - A software development process that aims to manage the flow of items being worked on (for example, the flow of completion of each item on the project’s todo list). Kanban processes seek to identify and eliminate bottlenecks in the software development lifecycle.
Lean - Product development principles that have been translated to the software development domain from lean manufacturing. There are 7 principles- eliminate waste, build in quality, create knowledge, defer commitment, deliver quickly, respect people, and optimize the whole.
Cowboy Coding - Developers have complete control of software development. There is no formal structure that guides the project along. The easiest way to think of this is as a “free for all” where you can do whatever part of the project you want whenever you want.
Iterative Development - The software is built knowing that future versions (iterations) will be used to refine the project.
Incremental Development - A software project is divided into chunks and each chunk is developed by the team, one at a time.
No Silver Bullet - A paper written in 1986 by Fred Brooks, in which he argues that /”there is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order of magnitude improvement in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity.”/

Let me know if I’ve missed anything and I’ll put it up!

Footnotes:

In the real world, a lot of people mix up agile and scrum. Sometimes they mix up agile and some other completely unrelated methodology. Just remember that agile is the philosophy, scrum is a methodology, and people will probably get them mixed up.

How To Teach Yourself To Code and Program

Friday, February 28th, 2014

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So you’ve decided you want to be a developer. You want to understand code and be a master of computers. You want to tell them what to do instead of struggling to figure out what they may or may not be doing. But you don’t know where to begin.

I’ll help you out.

Pick a Language…any language

First, pick a language. Any language, ideally one that interests you. But if you don’t know which language would interest you, just pick anyone.

Python
Ruby
Java
C#
PHP
C
C++
Etc. etc. etc.

PHP, Python and Ruby are languages typically used to power dynamic web sites. Java and C# are powerful languages that are used to power web sites that are heavy on traffic and are often used in game development and in many other applications. C is the mother of all languages and is the source for a lot of linux packages.

There are A LOT of languages. Pick one and learn it’s syntax. A lot of what you learn in your language of choice is transferrable (you won’t have to learn your second or third language “from scratch”).

Learn How To Write And Execute Code In That Language

The best way to learn syntax is by writing programs yourself. This means defining a problem you want to solve and writing a program that solves it. However, everyone has to start from scratch, and if you don’t know ANY syntax, you have to start somewhere. Learn the basic core concepts of the language of your choice:

How to write code by following syntax rules
How to run the written code

Different languages have different syntax rules (how to write code properly so that the computer can understand it), different data types (eg. number data, letter data and word data), and different tools to help you create or manipulate that data. There are lots of free books and resources online that will teach you. In fact, here’s a whole list of them. Awesome!

There are also lots of great Youtube Channels that have full courses on how to program. I love thenewboston. This was the channel that helped me get my feet wet with mobile application development when I began learning how to program. You can also search YouTube for “[language name here] tutorial” and look for programming tutorials. Before you know it, you’ll be writing all kinds of programs!

Different languages are executed differently. PHP is interpretted, while C is compiled and then the resulting binary can be executed. Java uses the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and C# uses the Common Language Runtime (CLR) to ensure compiled code can run on almost any machine. It’s okay if you don’t know what any of this means for now. But learn how the language you are choosing is executed- how the computer knows to run the code.

Start Writing Programs

Once you have a basic grasp of the syntax as well as how the language is executed, start writing programs. Here is a key lesson that may not be obvious.

It is okay to research when you write your programs.

It is okay to google. Developers google a LOT. Googling saves time. Googling cuts cost, effort and increases efficiency. And there are lots of things you will not know on your own without googling.

You will almost never write non-trivial programs off the top of your head without consulting external resources.

There are many situations in software development where you will not be able to derive a solution on your own. You will need to use an external resource to solve a problem. For example, you would not be able to intuitively deduce how to make an app work on Android, even if you perfectly knew the syntax of the language Android apps use (Java).

That previous link is to a page of the Android developer documentation. The documentation contains a complete listing of methods and functionality you can use when you write apps for Android. This functionality is collectively known as an Application Programming Interface (API).

There is no way you can know what the API allows, what functions or methods you can use, without doing research. This is a common theme in programming. You need to research. Get good at researching. Get good at understanding your research. And based on what you learn, you can come up with a solution for the problem you are trying to solve.

While we’re at it, here is another key lesson.

Documentation is a developer’s best friend.

Developers are constantly writing code and consulting external resources, especially API documentation.

If you check out the Android API, you’ll see it’s HUGE. How is a developer supposed to learn all of that?

Languages and APIs typically have A LOT of tools and functionality. You will not be able to learn them all without devoting a ton of time, and this will be a wasted effort. APIs frequently change. Functions and methods get deprecated, new ones get introduced, bugs are found and fixed, exploits are discovered and patched, software rots. And thus, APIs are constantly changing, evolving and even growing. This is the nature of the beast.

Here’s how to make sure you don’t waste your time.

The trick to efficient programming is to learn what you need when you need it.

You don’t have to know every single function or method a language library offers. Just focus on learning and understanding what you need in order to solve your problem. As you write more programs and solve more problems, you’ll begin to see what is commonly used, what is not, and how to learn to do what you need to do should you ever be confronted with a new problem you’ve never solved before.

Conclusion

So to conclude, a quick recap. In order to start learning how to develop, you must:

Pick a language
Learn how to write and execute code in that language
Start writing programs!

And it’s okay to use external resources! In fact, you should get good at researching and understanding what you find.

That’s it for now!

Android: Robolectric Unit Testing a Local Disk-Based SQLite Database

Friday, November 22nd, 2013

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Documentation was sparse regarding how to run Robolectric unit tests on a local database file stored on your computer. So here is what I managed to find.

The Problem

Robolectric is a great framework for running Android unit tests without having to deploy the application to your device or to an emulator. As a result, this significantly speeds up unit testing during Android application development.

However, SQLite databases become tricky when you have a premade database on which you wish to operate and invoke tests. This is because Robolectric uses an “in-memory” database for all SQLite operations. This works great, if you are running database creation queries and building your tables directly within the testing environment. Otherwise, you may find yourself looking for a way to test on a premade database.

Don’t worry. If you want to use a pre-made database and run your tests on that SQLite file, Robolectric’s got your back.

The Solution

First, ensure that the Robolectric dependency in your pom.xml file is version 2.1 or later. Support for local disk-based SQLite testing was introduced in version 2.1.

<dependency>
  <groupid>org.robolectric</groupid>
  <artifactid>robolectric</artifactid>
  <version>2.2</version>
  <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

Once you have that done, place a copy of your database file in the ${project_root}/src/test/resources directory.

When you compile your tests, files in this directory will get copied into an “output directory” containing all the compiled classes and files. On my machine, the directory is located at ${project_root}/target/test-classes. Thus, the file you place in the ${project_root}/src/test/resources directory will not be modified in any way. The copied file in the “output directory” will be modified. Any database operations performed in your unit tests will be operating on that “output directory” database file.

Now create a new Java test file. We’ll call ours DaoTest.java:

@RunWith(RobolectricTestRunner.class)
public class DaoTest {

    // This path is relative to ${project_root}/src/test/resources
    // This path is used in building the absolute path for the database
    private static final string DB_PATH = "/database/MyDbFile.db";
    // This will contain the absolute file path to the database
    private string dbPath;

    @Before
    public void setUp() throws Exception {
        String path = getClass.getResource(DB_PATH).toURI().getPath();
        File dbFile = new File(path);
        assertThat(dbFile.exists()).isTrue();
        dbPath = dbFile.getAbsolutePath();

        // Perform any other necessary set-up operations...
    }

    @After
    public void tearDown() throws Exception {
        // Perform any necessary clean-up operations...
    }

    @Test
    public void testGet() throws Exception {
        SQLiteDatabase db = SQLitedatabase.open(dbPath, null, OPEN_READWRITE);

        // Perform database operations...

        // Perform assertions on query results...

        db.close();
    }
}

That’s it. It really is that simple!

dbPath will contain the absolute path to the database file in that “output directory.” From there, you can invoke SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase() and perform any necessary operations on the disk-based SQLite database file.

The Application Development Workflow: Brainstorming

Friday, August 16th, 2013

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Introduction

Everything begins with an idea.

However, the dirty little secret of most (if not all) ideas is that ideas are worthless on their own. Ideas are absolutely not valuable on their own. They are a starting point and nothing more. I say this because you might end up finding the same thing I did- you may come up with several ideas that you think are novel that have not yet been implemented. Yet no matter how new the idea may seem, during market research, you will see that someone has tried to create your idea before in some way. If you are not prepared for this, it can be seriously demotivating. Ideas are the starting point. But there is a lot more work that comes after. This document focuses on how to develop ideas in preparation for all that work that will come after.

List your ideas

Have a LOT of ideas. Brainstorm until you are blue in the face. Have good ideas, have bad ideas, get it all out of your system. Build a long list of ideas for applications to develop. When you are comfortable with your list, you can begin sorting through each idea.

Place each idea in one of three groups - Not Developing, Maybe Developing, and Developing.

Not Developing - This group will contain all ideas you will not pursue developing and that you do not see yourself developing anytime in the future.
Maybe Developing - This group will contain all ideas that you may want to pursue developing in the future.
Developing - This group will contain all ideas that you may want to pursue developing immediately.

How you sort through your list depends on your motivations for developing an application. Are you looking to make money? Sort based on what may bring in the most revenue. Are you developing for fun? Sort based on what most interests you. Are you looking to build a portfolio? Sort based on what would be most persuasive to potential employers looking for new hires in the field you are pursuing.

Ultimately, your goal should be to have five ideas in the “Developing” Group. The rest should go in either the “Not Developing” group or the “Maybe Developing” group.

Define Your Goals

Once you have created a solid list of ideas, you must define the goal for each idea listed under the “Developing” category. Each idea can have its own separate goal, independent of the others. Defining these goals will help you further narrow down which ideas you are willing to commit to.

The goal can be whatever you want. Some examples include the following- to learn how to develop for the platforms of your choice, to build a portfolio, to try and build a financial revenue stream, to expand a business etc.

Note: One word of caution- financial revenue is NEVER a guaranteed outcome. Like any other business, a for-profit venture does contain its risks. In addition, you must be aware of your tax laws in case you do end up building a product that brings in revenue- in this case, you will have literally created a business.

Perform Market Research

Why perform market research

The goal of market research is twofold - you must understand the competitive environment of the market you are entering and you must learn what potential users are expecting of your application. This is important for any project, including open-source software. The lifeblood of any application, and of all software in general, is its users. If you are not competing for price and value in the commercial sense, then you will almost certainly be competing for a users time. In either case, it becomes clear that you will have competition in some way. Do not neglect proper research simply because you may not have financial motives.

Market research unlocks a treasure-trove of information that will be very helpful in developing an application that matches and even exceeds user expectations as well as information regarding the market ecosystem and how your application may fit in it, depending on the developmental choices you will make. This information includes things like- expected features and functionality, how to reach more users, how to retain users, how to stay relevant, and what users are willing to pay for. With this knowledge, you can build an application that users will enjoy, and find ways to differentiate your product.

Your market research process may evolve as you discover the most effective means of research for your particular market. But a boilerplate sample plan can certainly help if you have no previous experience with this kind of research.

How to perform market research

Market research is one of the components in the application development process where you will be straying into another field. Large companies have teams dedicated to marketing, market research, etc. Here, you will do your best as you go along, constantly learning. You may not have a large team, but there is a lot of useful data that you can find and analyze on your own.

For each of the applications in your “Developing” list, gather the following information using whatever resources are available to you (search engines, Google Play App Store, iTunes App Store, etc.; also, be sure to save your research in a txt or doc file for future reference):

Identify your target market and your target users - parents, teens, mid-twenty-year-olds, gamers, musicians, book-lovers, calligraphy enthusiasts, etc. The more specifically and clearly you define your target market, the more effective your actual marketing will be. You don’t have to limit yourself to one market category per application. However, “targeting everyone” is not going to be very helpful.
- Speak with people who may fall under your target market. People who are interested in similar applications. Ask them what they like and what they dislike about the similar applications. If you can get this info directly from potential users, you will be off to a great start. This kind of information is valuable.
- Your target market are those who you must persuade to download the application. Your target users are those who will actually use the application. Usually, both are the same, however there are cases where they are different. If they are different for your case, be sure to identify the category under which your target market falls and the category under which your target users fall. One very common example are “children’s apps” whose target market are parents and their target users are the children.
Identify your competition - Identify at least 5 applications that are similar to your idea that currently dominate the marketplace. Take notice of the general number of similar applications that exist and write that number down. Then, gather the following data for each of the applications you have chosen to analyze.
- Application URLs - The app store URL for the product and their website url, if they have one.
- Application Description
- Application Category - The store category that the application is listed under.
- Application Maintenance - The current release version as well as the date of the last update.
- Application Size - The amount of storage space the application requires.
- Target Market - Who is being persuaded to download the application?
- Target Users - Who is actually using the application. Often, this is the same as the Target Market, but not always.
- Hook - What is the applications main “selling point”? Is there something about it that makes potential users curious and persuades them to check it out and click download? It can be gimmicky and it does not have to be very useful. However, it will convince potential users to download the application. Not all applications have one and not all application developers know they have added one.
- Pros - The good stuff the application offers. Download the application, use it and make your own observations. Then, read the user ratings and take note of what others liked about it.
- Cons - The bad stuff that hurts the overall application. Again, download the application and make your own observations. Then, refer to the customer ratings and take note of what others did not like about it.
- Screenshots - How many screenshots are being displayed? Are they tablet screenshots? Are they mobile screenshots? What parts of the application are being displayed?
- Videos - Take notes on how they use video to market their product.
- Store Listing Design - Observe the app store page design, specifically how the product is being marketed in the context of the overall page. Look for tailored styles, custom images, anything that is not a part of the default app store. Take note of anything you find. You may have to decide whether or not you wish to spend time designing your own assets (e.g., a banner “feature graphic” for the Google Play store). You also want to take note on how they use these styles, images and other assets to market their product.
Identify your product’s hook - You should have at least one major differentiator for your own application. You have knowledge on what is already out there in the market. Now how will your product be different? It doesn’t have to be anything special or revolutionary, but it can be. It could also be some gimmicky feature that would capture interest and persuade potential users to download the application. The overarching point here is that you will almost always have competition, and lots of it. Giving yourself a hook, a differentiator, is a good attempt at getting some share of the market for your product. It is certainly not a guarantee, but depending on the hook, it can increase your chances in successfully building a user-base.
(Optional) Identify potential revenue channels - For each of the ideas in your “Developing” list, determine whether or not you wish for it to be a for-profit commercial product. If so, identify potential revenue channels.
- Advertisements - This can bring in some revenue if you end up having a LOT of users. However, ads are not appropriate for all applications. For example, you may decide that placing ads in applications that target toddlers (by marketing to parents as a “children’s application”) is not a very good idea. Decide whether or not your application is a suitable candidate for ads and whether or not you want to implement them.
- In-App Purchases - These days, In-App purchases are definitely something to consider if you are seeking to bring in revenue. Avoid compromising the experience of the application in anyway that makes it unfair to the free users. For example, a game where the paying players always win may immediately lose value; the free players (who are potential customers) may simply stop using the application, and consequently, you may end up with a smaller and smaller pool of paying customers.
- Premium Version - You may consider making a paid premium version of your application. This version would offer more features that enhance the application experience while still allowing non-paying users to have access to the free version. I would consider making this an In-App purchase as opposed to a separate application. That way, the upgrade more accessible and will allow for users to upgrade at their leisure.
- Other - You can get creative and find other ways to monetize your application. The previous suggestions tend to be the standard methods of bringing in revenue. But if you know of another method or if you can create your own, and if it follows the terms and conditions of the platforms you plan to support, then go for it and give it a shot!
(Optional) Identify localizations you wish to support - The more languages your application supports, the wider the net you will be able to cast for building a user-base. All mobile application platforms offer localization support for text and images. So plan ahead of time whether or not you intend to support other languages. If you speak other languages, consider providing support for those languages. Be sure to take into consideration whether or not a market exists in the languages for which your are considering providing support.

Make Your Decision

After having completely racked your brains for application ideas, filtering down that list, and thoroughly researching the market, you now have enough information to decide whether or not you really wish to pursue any of the projects in your “Developing” list. Eliminate those that no longer interest you. Then simply decide here and now whether or not you are truly willing to commit to completing the ones that remain.

I would, at maximum, work on two or three personal projects at a time. The more projects you take on at one time, the longer they will take for you to complete.

If you have decided you do not want to pursue any of the ideas on your “Developing” list, you can do one of two things. You can refer to your “Maybe Developing” list and reconsider some of those ideas. Or you can start again from the beginning and come up with a whole new list of ideas.

Conclusion

The entire Brainstorming Phase may take days or it may take a few weeks. Do not get discouraged if you find yourself spending a week or more on it. Remember, you will probably spend months working on the project itself. You do not want to end up starting work on something on a whim, only to find out later that you are no longer interested in the project, or that it may not be profitable, or any other line of reasoning that could have been prevented with proper planning and research.

There is a lot of information here. Use it as a baseline and tailor it to your particular goals. The ultimate point is that you want to have well-researched data and make well-reasoned assessments that will help you understand the scope of the project you are taking on and its potential requirements for completion. Hold on to all the information you have gathered so far. It is going to be organized in the next phase as part of your project documentation.

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