Customer Cheat Sheet

At Object, we develop solutions that cross the boundaries between the domains of software design, CAD/CAM/CAE, and R&D. The breadth of each project makes it challenging to fully specify the requirements. To make it easier for our customers, we have prepared the Customer Cheat Sheet, listing questions that enable us to tailor the scope of work.

We invite you to discuss the CSS in the comment section.

Ideation 

• Can you provide user stories?
• Can you clearly define the boundaries of your product?
• Do you have an example of what you want to achieve? Existing solutions?

Time

• How much time is available in the project?
• Are there any well defined milestones?
• Is the work part of a funded research project?
• Is it possible to break down the project into smaller tasks with different priorities?

Data 

• Is there any persistent data which the app should work with?
• How would you like to store this data? Database/Cloud/Local?
• GDPR - is there any sensitive information stored? How would you like to protect it?
• Do you want to collect usage metrics?

Computational problems

• Can you classify your problem? Is it NP-hard, complete, trivial? 
• Can the problem be reduced (broken down into smaller problems)? If yes, what can be said about the smaller problems? Which are mandatory to solve, which are optional?

Users

• What is the typical profile of the app user? Is it an expert user or a more general population?
• If your user group is limited to your company only, is it planned to train the personnel to use the app?
• Does your app need user accounts? If yes, do you need MFA (multi-factor authentication), logon with external services/SSO?

Platform

• Is there any preferred tech stack (front- and/or back-end) (desktop, mobile or web)?
• Are there any other projects which could benefit from the code? What are the technologies used in those projects?

Project management

• Does the project or its outcome have to adhere to any ISO codes?
• Do you have an existing project management workflow under which the project will run?

Testing

• Who is going to perform the manual tests?
• What is the minimal scope which can be tested (the sooner the better)?