Introduction
As you begin to put your project together, you’ll find your “Success Map” is the single most important part of the project. The Success Map is the plan that defines specifically how the software should be built, how it should work, how it looks and how it stores the all important data.
You might ask – why not just start putting the software together immediately? And as things progress, why not make course corrections along the way?
Virtually all developers, at some point early in their career, have done similar. “Got an idea?” “Good.” “Ready?” “Start coding.”
**THE SUCCESS MAP IS THE HEART OF YOUR PROJECT**
On simple projects, this might work. On projects where you’re the only user, you can get away with this. On big projects that you intend to market to the public, this has little chance of working.
Software needs a Success Map as much as a pilot needs a map. If you want to know where you are going, any person can pick up the map and quickly reference his/her location. With software, it’s similar.
Any programmer should be able to look at your Success Map and know where the pieces of your software should go.
Having a plan also means you have a map to follow while you’re building the project. As the project progresses, you can look at the Success Map and decide what needs to be done next. Or you can look at the document and see how two elements within the software fit together.
If it’s solidly built you could hand your Success Map to an independent software consulting team, and without saying a word, they should be able to put your entire project together.
That’s our goal with the completed Success Map.
It’s a sad fact – but too many software projects begin without enough time being spent in preparation and building of a solid plan. And although some succeed, many, many more fail.
Let’s talk about how we can put together a bulletproof Success Map.
Your Success Map is going to include the following sections:
- Feature List
- User Stories
- User Interface
- Data Structure.
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