Software Solutions Pre-Development Phase

Before any software development project can commence, there is much work to be done to fully understand whether there is a commercial need/viability for your product. Work carried out here can also help you to define the initial system architecture.

There are 3 main areas where software development work is needed:

• Greenfield engineering - a new development effort
• Interface engineering - a change to the interface of an existing system
• Re-engineering - software development to replace an existing business process

In all three cases the same studies should be embarked upon to ensure the software development project is viable, usually described as a Problem Statement or Statement of Need the study should describe the business requirements to be addressed:

• The Product Concept (your software solution)
• Market Analysis
• Product Business Plan
• Competitive analysis
  • Product positioning
  • User profile
  • Resource planning
  • Cost justification

The outcome of the above studies should be a detailed business plan - one that is pragmatic and backed up by logical analysis and hard facts gathered by market research. The plan will almost certainly need frequent revision, but that is a natural part of the software development planning process in itself.

At Motive, our staff have successfully carried out this process for many software products and would be pleased to assist with your product business plan or market analysis functions.