Development questions

Phase 1: Requirements Gathering & Clarification

Top Level User Story

• What is the main objective or goal of this feature/change?
• What problem are we actually solving? (not what solution they’re requesting)
• What does success look like for the user?

Value & Justification

• How does this work enhance the application/product?
• What additional benefits or improvements does it bring?
• Why is this work necessary or important?
• What problem or need does it address?
• What’s the impact if we get this wrong?
• What happens if we don’t build this?

Stakeholder & User Discovery

• Who are the users affected by this?
• Who else needs to be involved?
• Can you show me the current workflow?
• What’s the migration path from the current state?

Success Criteria & Measurement

• How will we know this worked?
• How can we demonstrate the impact or value of this work?
• What criteria or metrics can be used to measure its success?

Constraints & Context

• What can’t we change?
• What’s the timeline? What’s the budget?
• Are there any compliance or security considerations?

Organizational Policies

• Are there specific policies or processes that need to be followed during development?

Phase 2: Technical Investigation & Feasibility

System Impact

• What systems/services does this touch?
• What data moves where?
• What APIs, databases, third-party services are involved?
• Where are the integration points?
• What’s the blast radius if this fails?

Technical Requirements

• Are there any specific technical constraints or dependencies that need to be considered?
• What technologies or frameworks should be utilized for this work?

Scalability & Performance

• How will this work scale as the application grows?
• Are there any performance considerations or benchmarks to meet?

Security

• Are there any potential security vulnerabilities or risks associated with this work?

Risk Assessment

• What could go wrong? What are the unknowns?
• What’s the worst-case scenario we need to handle?

Phase 3: Breaking Down the Work

User Experience (UX)

• How will this work impact the user experience?
• Are there any usability considerations to be aware of?
• How do we validate we’re building the right thing?

Dependencies

• What’s blocking us from starting this?
• What blocks what?
• What assumptions are we making?

Collaboration & Communication

• How will communication be maintained between team members and stakeholders throughout the process?
• Are there any collaboration tools or platforms to be used?

Phase 4: Estimation & Planning

Planning & Timeline

• What would make this take 10x longer?
• What is the deployment plan for this work?
• Are there any rollout or release strategies to consider?

Testing & Quality Assurance

• What testing strategies will be employed to ensure the quality of the implementation?
• Are there any specific test cases or scenarios that need to be addressed?

Documentation

• What documentation needs to be created or updated as part of this work?
• How will knowledge transfer be facilitated for other team members?

Phase 5: Risk Management & Validation

Risk Management

• What potential risks or challenges could arise during implementation, and how will they be mitigated?
• Is there a contingency plan in place for unexpected issues?
• What’s our rollback strategy?

Monitoring

• What metrics or indicators can be used to track the performance or usage of this feature/change?
• How will we monitor its effectiveness over time?
• How will we monitor this in production?

Feedback & Iteration

• How will feedback be collected and incorporated into future iterations?
• What mechanisms are in place for continuous improvement?

Deployment & Rollout

• What is the deployment plan for this work?
• Are there any rollout or release strategies to consider?