Background Analysis

1. How will users interact with it?
   1. What different roles exist?
   2. What are the different stories they have?
   3. What is the deployment story?
2. Within each story, where are data
   1. Created,
   2. Transformed,
   3. Transferred,
   4. Destroyed?
3. Do data serve different purposes at different points in time?
4. Are there data you may expect to track, query, and/or analyze?
5. What are your constraints/objectives:
   1. Externally imposed?
   2. Internal goals?
6. 3rd party software:
   1. Where would you like to use 3rd party?
   2. What are the risks in those cases?
   3. Can they be mitigated?
   4. Is there a cheaper option?

Using the Above

1. What aspects feel most uncertain?
2. Architecture
   1. What designs apply?
   2. Do they clarify the uncertainties?
   3. Can you refine the level of detail?
   4. Repeat recursively on just the most uncertain pieces…
3. Feasibility
   1. What pieces do you need to explore until feasibility is clear?
   2. Can you prototype only those pieces?