The main objectives of the Design phase are:

• The design phase entails:
• Scoping the ideas into one comprehensive plan.
• Developing a list of deliverables and work items.
• Analyzing the risk of each deliverable
• Figuring out what to prioritize in the product schedule

Scoping

In order to scope your project you want to evaluate all of the ideas from the planning phase against the northstar and the business objectives. Anything that does not align with both the northstar and business objectives should be an idea that is moved to the backlog of ideas for future reference. Any work item that does qualify is moved on to the next phase.

Risk Analysis

This phase is very important in the prioritization of work items. Understanding the risk present within each work item and identifying the critical path are all important. To identify the risk creating a matrix is key. Checking for the impact of work item if something were to go bad and rating it between high and low as well as determining the likelihood of something bad happening as well and evaluating it on the same scale will allow you to not only create a comprehensive risk mitigation strategy leading to more accurate planning but it will also make the team aware of any possible things that can go wrong in the development of the product. Identifying in the critical path is important as well. The critical path is a deliverable that if something happens to og wrong it will derail and impact the project schedule significantly. After you have identified this you can create a mitigation plan as well and prioritize said work item in case something does happen. After everything has been evaluated now it's time for the project timeline.

Timeline

The project timeline serves as a perfect way to roughly outline what things need to be done by what time. It is key to look into dependencies during this stage. Dependencies are work items that depend on other work items in order to be even started. For the prioritization of work items I tend to place the critical path work items earlier in the project schedule as well as the items that are dependencies for the other work items. This timeline also has to be feasible in terms of the amount of deliverables that are planning to be committed each iteration.

Formal documentation

The Formal documentation often known as a technical specification is a document that discusses and outlines everything that was discovered and defined before. Topics that are included in the technical spec include but are not limited to:

• The main goal of the project
• The timeline of the project
• The risk
• The risk mitigation plans
• Critical paths
• Technical Requirements
• Any dependencies with other cross functional teams

Oftentimes this documentation is written with input of the team. To not only get an idea of it but also to get feedback.

‍