Key Elements Web Discovery Phase: Roles, Objectives, Deliverables and Activities

The key elements of the discovery phase of the website development process model include:

1. Creating the Discovery Team: The discovery team should ideally include people with diverse interests and specialties, such as a project manager, a UX/UI designer, a technical expert/developer and a project analyst.
2. Gather Requirements: Taking input from the clients is important for any project to have smooth sailing, such as documenting all the requirements from your clients and then taking time to process them.
3. Conducting Research: Research can be further divided into four different categories: client/customer interviews, market/industry research, competitor research and think like a user.
4. Presenting the Solutions: Once the initial research has been carried out during the project discovery phase and solutions have been identified, you must present your findings to the client.
5. Establishing the Timeline and Budget: Identify any potential bottlenecks that may delay the project or lead to problems and create a comprehensive timeline for all the different stages of the project.
6. Identify and Agree on Next Steps: Once you’ve finalized the details of the project discovery phase, you can share these with the client and start discussions about starting the project.

In this lesson, you will learn the roles, objectives, deliverables, and activities in the Discovery phase. In the Discovery phase, the development team and the client exchange information about the client's needs and the Web team's capabilities. A statement of need or request for proposals (RFP) is developed to articulate the client's business needs clearly and to spell out the design, development, and delivery strategies. The goals of this phase are to:

1. Specify the business needs for a website
2. Determine what issues and constraints affect the design, development, and delivery of the product

The WebTeam organizational blueprint helps you identify the key team members in the Discovery phase. While the creative and technical roles are not heavily involved in this phase, their objective here is to support the business role.

OBJECTIVES	DELIVERABLES	Activities
Understand the business needs of the client and the capabilities of the team. Help client to develop Statement of Need/RFP	Statement of Need Request for Proposal	Identify client's goals, objectives, and project end date Delineate the client's business environment Make internal business case for the project Identify and interview audience for Web site Identify gaps, risk factors, and success factors Produce Statement of Need/RFP

In many cases, the client will perform the majority of these tasks and will often outsource tasks such as audience interviews to an appropriate agency.The Discovery phase demands collaboration between the Web team and the client. In fact, some activities may be performed by the client, depending on the client's level of experience, knowledge, available resources, and level of desire to be more hands on in the process. While the business role handles most of the tasks in this phase, the creative and technical roles may be consulted on an informal basis for input.
In the next lesson, you will learn the key elements of the Definition phase.