This post is part of our software development process series

• Clarifyng the vision
• Designing user experience and user interface
• Project kickoff and setup(Coming soon)
• Development (Coming soon)
• Release preparation (Coming soon)
• App maintenance(Coming soon)

Before you start building an application for a client the who's, what, how and why matters a lot. Who are you making the application for and who will be involved in the making of this application? What is the use of this application and what value does it bring? How will it be used? Why should we make it this way?

The project canvas

Our process is based on these questions. We use a project canvas to assist us in getting a high level view of the project

The product canvas consists of the name of the product, the goals of the product, i.e. what does it solve? The canvas also looks at the scale of the product, i.e. market size and reach. It also looks at the target group, looking at the users and customer needs. Personas are created for the target group. A persona profile may include the age, the role, the background, etc. Next the canvas looks at the big picture of this application having determined the discussed. The big picture includes the functionalities, the visual design and the nonfunctional properties.

"The planning process was smooth and any questions I had were addressed." - Henry - BusinessAPIs

Lastly the canvas takes note of the next iteration and specific actionable items to reach the goal. Several tools and process can be used in this first step, for example, prioritisation charts, event storming as well the user journey maps.