Why is an investigation phase important for your project?

Picture the scene - you're looking for a highly-rated agency to deliver your project. You've found Peslo, a software consultancy specialising in building world-class software - perfect for your world-changing idea. We have an informal chat together, and we discuss our investigation phase.

You might be thinking: "Why is an investigation phase important? Why can't we just jump straight in and build my new app?"

These are good questions to be asking - as we understand that timelines might be tight, and budgets might be tighter! At Peslo, we have some key foundations for how we conduct business:

• Honesty
• Transparency
• Efficiency
• Foresightfulness

These have lead to us developing our investigation phase, that we complete before we take on any large engineering project. Our investigation phase leads to some important outcomes, including:

• A clear understanding of costings, with previously unknown factors discovered & taken into account
• An accurate project timeline, with risks uncovered & correctly mitigated
• A detailed discovery document; covering our findings, development plan, and performance metrics to ensure the delivered solution matches expectations

Of course this phase brings an upfront cost, however we've seen it to consistently lead to a lower & more accurate cost estimation for the development phase - allowing you to better utilise your funding for other areas of your business & increasing the ROI gained from your project.

We look to cover a range of areas in our investigation phase, such as:

Understanding Scope & Objectives

An introduction call doesn't give anyone enough time to discuss a project that might run for months, so as part of our investigation phase we take the time to really dive into the goals of the project, and what our client is looking as an outcome. Perhaps you're wanting a brand new MVP built, or perhaps your MVP has already been built but you now need specialist help for the next step. Maybe your company is pre-revenue, and you're needing a prototype built to take to your investment pitches - it's important we don't just consider the 'now', but how we can align with & positively drive your 'future'. With this understanding, if needed we will suggest alternative paths outside of building a bespoke app if we believe you will not receive the return on investment you're looking for.

Collecting Requirements

So we can give our clients the most accurate timeline & cost estimates, we take the time to work with you to understand the requirements of your project, such as:

• Any key features & functionality
• The anticipated user audience
• Release dates
• Channels for acquiring new users
• Project stretch goals
• The roadmap for after the project has been delivered

By taking these requirements into consideration, we can draw up a plan that efficiently completes your project, whilst also considering your future goals & preventing cost overruns, providing enhanced value from your investment.

Support Beyond Engineering

During our investigation phase, we work closely with you to really understand how your business works & how this project will influence the business' direction in the future. In our discovery document produced at the end of the development phase, we will put forward ways in which our trusted partner agency Elevate Group can assist with operations support.

Risk Identification & Mitigation

For any large scale engineering project, especially within the niches of mobile such as hardware integrations, bluetooth, or networking, it is important to uncover & understand any inherent risks. For example, your idea may involve building network integrations, but if your product will be predominantly used in areas without network connection, we'll need to handle that as a fundamental requirement. Other risks may be around key project dependencies, such as the delivery of hardware that is still in development, or third parties that are delivering other parts of the overall solution. By taking the time to understand these risks, we can work out how to reduce the impact of them & save costs.

Resource Assessment

As a boutique agency, we pride ourselves on having a small but highly skilled & efficient team who are capable of tackling any project - no matter the complexity. Our lead consultants have worked together on multiple projects, working to bring companies from pre-revenue through to series B funding rounds. For large projects, we utilise our network built up from many years in the industry to source the best talent to help deliver your project. With a comprehensive network covering mobile, design, web, server-side, data, and dev-ops, we can find the right people to speed up delivery whilst keeping quality at our high standards. We also work with our trusted partner agency Elevate Group, to provide in-house operations capacity. By considering resources up-front, we can ensure the right people are ready as soon as the project starts, and not compromise on the delivery of our other ongoing projects.

Feasibility Analysis

Whilst we're comfortable with all projects in mobile, such as building the first Tap and Pay over Time solution in Europe for Zilch, or EV charger integrations for ev.energy, it is still important for us to take the time to establish that your key requirements are feasible within the time and budget constraints provided. For example, building an MVP of a festival app platform is possible in 6 months, but if the app is needed for an event in 3 months then certain features may need to be set aside. By taking the time to understand the complete project, we can deliver our roadmap with certainty that what we're aiming for is feasible.

Niche Requirements

We're aware that your project may have certain specialised requirement that mean you'll need extra support, such as enhanced security protection, interfacing with third party vendors, or increased compliance expectations. By covering these in our investigation phase, we ensure that there are no surprises later down the line & streamline the path to completion.

Baseline Establishment

Often completion of a project is seen as the most fundamental deliverable, however we believe that the only way to know if a project has truly been delivered in line with expectations is to set up some key baselines and key performance indicators. For example, some key performance indicators may cover:

• Platform stability - if the platform isn't stable, then it needs further work
• Functionality utilisation - it is important to ensure that features are being discovered & used by your audience, and if it isn't then steps need to be established to accomplish this
• User acquisition - if you're wanting your MVP to help grow your company's user base, the only way to be sure this happens is to set targets & measure impact. We may also set targets for tracking user acquisition costs, if one of the goals is to reduce the cost-per-user on acquisition

By setting baselines and key performance indicators, we are able to agree on a range of reference points for measuring progress & success, to ensure that your expectations for ROI are exceeded.

Cost Estimations

World-class engineering isn't known for being cheap, and whilst some agencies are happy to run up costs, we prefer to take an ethical approach to pricing. By working with you to establish your requirements, risks, constraints, and objectives, we're able to provide a detailed estimate that delivers the best value for your organisation. Without an investigation phase, there is too much uncertainty to guarantee that that quotation is accurate, and the risk of cost overruns is increased.

Timeline development

Once we've completed our investigation phase, we can take our findings to build a realistic project timeline, with an assortment of key milestones for delivery. This allows us to align on resourcing the project with the best talent, prevent any impact on our other clients, and ensures that the project will be delivered in the most efficient way.

In summary, we see our investigation phase as the best way to build a strong foundation for your engineering project - by considering the details & taking the time to understand your business, we can provide cost estimates and project timelines with more accuracy than other agencies in the market and ensure your expectations for ROI are exceeded - and consistently deliver successful outcomes that help your world-changing business deliver world-influencing impact.

Want to chat with us about how we can deliver world-class software for your company? Book a call with us here: https://peslostudios.com/contact