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consulting-kickoff-questions.md

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State of Project

If greenfield...

  • What problem are you trying to solve for your users?
  • Is there a plenary document or prospectus? Are there spec documents we can look at?
  • Who are the stakeholders involved?
  • What does the timeline for this project look like? Are there any important dates we should know about (board meetings, investor presentations, release commitments, etc)?
  • How much flexibility is there in the budget for changes in scope?
  • Are there visual designs for this project, and if so, how can we access them?
  • Do you have particular technologies in mind for this project? What appeals to you about those technologies?
  • Are there existing services that we'll be tying in with? Do you own those or does someone else?
  • What about test coverage? Accessibility? Responsive design and/or support for mobile form factors?

If reengineering...

  • Where is the application succeeding?
  • Where is the application failing? How did you identify these as problem areas?
  • What are the consequences of these failures? Are there metrics that we can look at?
  • Is A/B testing (or similar) in-scope for this project?
  • What risks and constraints do we need to know about?
  • What sort of test coverage do you already have?
  • Is there flexibility to make changes to the current technology stack and tooling?

If adding new service/s and/or feature/s...

  • Is this project replacing an existing service or feature?
  • Who is the service and/or feature meant to benefit? What is the value-add for that user?
  • What specific business interest or goal does this service and/or feature serve?
  • What is the definition of success for this project? How will this be measured?
  • What does the timeline for this project look like? Is there a marketing timeline that we need to be aware of?
  • Are there designs and/or design assets for this project? If so, how can we access those? Do you have an existing style guide?
  • Will we be developing and staging our work in an existing environment?

If team boost...

  • What is the current state of the project?
  • What are you looking for in a team boost? Increased velocity? Expertise in a particular area? etc.
  • What can we do to successfully integrate with the existing team/s?

Project Team

  • What does your organizational structure look like?
  • How large is your team? Do you have multiple teams? Do they work cross-functionally?
  • Is there an existing technical team or person we'll be working with?
  • Will there be a project manager on this project?
  • Who is the best person to contact with questions and requests? What is the best way to contact that person? Best time? (for each: technical, scope/timeline, personnel)
  • Who can we reach out to if that person is unavailable? What is the best way to contact that person? Best time? (for each: technical, scope/timeline, personnel)
  • Is there a design team or designer involved? If so, how do we contact them?
  • Is there a marketing team or marketer involved? If so, will we be working with them? In what capacity?
  • How involved is the executive team? Will we be working with them? In what capacity?

Process

  • What does your development process look like?
  • How does your team communicate? How do you communicate with other stakeholders?
  • Do you do daily standups? If not, is your team available to do daily standups? What time works best? What format?
  • Does your team do release planning? If so, how often? Who is invited?
  • Do your teams work in sprints/iterations? If so, what is the typical duration?
  • Who sets the acceptance criteria, and how does acceptance work on your team?
  • Do your teams pair-program? Will we be pairing with members from your team/s? What does pairing look like in your team/s?
  • Do you hold retrospectives? If so, how often? Is the whole team invited?
  • Do you use project management software? Will we be using that software, and if so is there someone who can walk us through your workflow?
  • Is story-writing a "whole team" process? Who is responsible for grooming the Backlog?