Discovery

Discovery is the opening phase of a software initiative, focused on establishing what should be built and why — on doing the right thing. It precedes inception, which is concerned with how to deliver it, and the subsequent delivery phase in which the solution is built, operated, and improved.

The terms "discovery" and "inception" are often used interchangeably, and the two overlap considerably. User needs and business goals are revisited during an inception, and an inception that uncovers doubts about the validity of the value proposition may pivot back into a discovery. The distinction is one of emphasis rather than a hard boundary. High-performing teams frequently run aspects of discovery, inception, and delivery in parallel rather than as strict sequential stages.

The output of a discovery is a shared, evidence-backed understanding of the problem space. It captures who the intended users are, what outcomes they and the business are seeking, and which problems are worth solving. It is an iterative and incremental activity, not a waterfall-style requirements phase. The work is exploratory and collaborative, bringing together domain experts, product owners, designers, and engineers.

In projects that follow domain-driven design, the strategic design — building a high-level model of the business domain — is typically carried out during discovery, through conversations between technical experts and domain experts. A number of collaborative modelling techniques are used to surface the domain, including EventStorming (in its Big Picture and Process Level forms), Domain Storytelling, and other workshop formats.

Note

Discovery as a distinct, named phase is a relatively modern, agile-influenced framing. The word inception for an opening project phase comes from the Rational Unified Process (RUP), whose first phase is named Inception and covers scope, business case, and risk. The modern split separates the "what and why" of discovery from the "how to get it off the ground" of inception.

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