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I find it's best to think of and also communicate the research phase as stage of the project itself with a report at the end as a deliverable. At the status me

I find it's best to think of and also communicate the research phase as stage of the project itself with a report at the end as a deliverable. At the status meeting, talk about the stages you've accomplished so far ("I've completed scoping, looked at these three third-party components, etc"). When the research stage is done, write up a research report with what you did and the findings and present it to the team. This gives the rest of the team visibility into what you're doing. It's also very helpful months later when you question "why did we pick Foo?" because you can refer back and know exactly why you did.

levythe 7y ago
This is helpful. Thanks for this.
bluGill 7y ago
I can't tell you how many times I've been on the team and decided on X, and years latter someone asks why not Y. I can remember many discussions and Y was part of it, there often were good reasons not Y - but I no longer remember them.
KineticLensman 7y ago
> think of and also communicate the research phase as stage of the project itself with a report at the end as a deliverable Yes. This is the classic funded feasibility study / scoping study phase. The report deliverable can include a price estimate and also a risk estimate, e.g. expressed as the cost of additional rework, especially where there is a residual uncertainty (e.g. the use of a new component / framework, etc) at the end of the initial study. How companies manage their risk 'pots' is extremely telling. In some situations there can be additional breakpoints, sometimes contractually, if third parties / subcontractors are involved.
pbh101 7y ago
‘Architecture Decision Records’ are one pattern of attempting to document these discussions in a lightweight manner. http://thinkrelevance.com/blog/2011/11/15/documenting-architecture-decisions http://thinkrelevance.com/blog/2011/11/15/documenting-archit...

levythe 7y ago

This is helpful. Thanks for this.

bluGill 7y ago

I can't tell you how many times I've been on the team and decided on X, and years latter someone asks why not Y. I can remember many discussions and Y was part of it, there often were good reasons not Y - but I no longer remember them.

KineticLensman 7y ago

> think of and also communicate the research phase as stage of the project itself with a report at the end as a deliverable Yes. This is the classic funded feasibility study / scoping study phase. The report deliverable can include a price estimate and also a risk estimate, e.g. expressed as the cost of additional rework, especially where there is a residual uncertainty (e.g. the use of a new component / framework, etc) at the end of the initial study. How companies manage their risk 'pots' is extremely telling. In some situations there can be additional breakpoints, sometimes contractually, if third parties / subcontractors are involved.

pbh101 7y ago

‘Architecture Decision Records’ are one pattern of attempting to document these discussions in a lightweight manner. http://thinkrelevance.com/blog/2011/11/15/documenting-architecture-decisions http://thinkrelevance.com/blog/2011/11/15/documenting-archit...