project-planning

Comprehensive knowledge for planning software projects from ideation to execution.

Planning Methodology

1. Discovery Phase

Questions to Ask:

• What problem are we solving?
• Who are the target users?
• What does success look like?
• What are the constraints?
• What's the timeline?

2. Requirements Gathering

Requirement Types:

• Functional: What the system must do
• Non-Functional: How well it must do it
• Technical: Implementation constraints
• Business: Organizational needs

3. User Story Format

**As a** [type of user]
**I want** [goal/desire]
**So that** [benefit/value]

**Acceptance Criteria:**
- [ ] Criterion 1
- [ ] Criterion 2
- [ ] Criterion 3

**Priority:** P0/P1/P2
**Estimate:** S/M/L/XL

4. Prioritization Framework

MoSCoW Method:

• Must Have: Critical for MVP
• Should Have: Important but not critical
• Could Have: Nice to have
• Won't Have: Out of scope (for now)

Priority Levels: | Priority | Description | Timeline | |----------|-------------|----------| | P0 | Critical | Immediate | | P1 | High | This sprint | | P2 | Medium | Next sprint | | P3 | Low | Backlog |

5. Estimation Techniques

T-Shirt Sizing: | Size | Complexity | Time | |------|------------|------| | XS | Trivial | < 1 hour | | S | Simple | 1-4 hours | | M | Medium | 4-8 hours | | L | Complex | 1-3 days | | XL | Very Complex | > 3 days |

Story Points (Fibonacci): 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21

6. Scope Management

In Scope:

• Explicitly defined features
• Agreed requirements
• Documented acceptance criteria

Out of Scope:

• Features deferred to future
• Explicitly excluded items
• Nice-to-haves beyond MVP

7. Risk Assessment

| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation | |------|------------|--------|------------| | Scope creep | High | High | Strict change control | | Technical debt | Medium | Medium | Regular refactoring | | Key person dependency | Medium | High | Documentation, pairing |

Templates

Project Brief Template

# Project: [Name]

## Overview
[1-2 sentence description]

## Problem Statement
[What problem does this solve?]

## Goals
1. [Primary goal]
2. [Secondary goal]
3. [Tertiary goal]

## Success Metrics
- [Metric 1]: [Target]
- [Metric 2]: [Target]

## Scope
### In Scope
- [Feature 1]
- [Feature 2]

### Out of Scope
- [Excluded 1]
- [Excluded 2]

## Timeline
- Phase 1: [Date]
- Phase 2: [Date]
- Launch: [Date]

Epic Template

# Epic: [Name]

## Description
[What this epic accomplishes]

## User Stories
- [ ] US-001: [Story]
- [ ] US-002: [Story]

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] [Criterion]

## Dependencies
- [Dependency 1]