A software project starts with one sentence: who uses it, which step, and which system it touches. Screens are drawn after that sentence. Without the sentence, the meeting debates colour and the menu. If the step is unwritten, the software makes the exception in an email permanent.
Who uses it
The role is named: sales, warehouse, dealer, accounts. “Everyone will use it” is not a role. The first release opens with one role. The second role waits on the queue. The role sees its own record. It does not see someone else’s margin.
Which step
The step is the job that already finishes in a sheet or an email. The event that starts it, the person who looks, the approval, and the record that means done are written down. A request to make the panel pleasant is not on that list. If the step changes with every customer and nobody will name the flow, the company decides internally first. Indecision is not written into code.
Which system it touches
An ERP, a CRM, a mailbox or a file. The name and the direction are written. The system nobody will touch is written too. HED Creative does not turn that list into a screen in Berlin or Ankara before the repository is opened in the company’s name. The company owns the code. The agency is a user.
Why the screen comes after
The screen is the visible form of the sentence. When the sentence changes, the screen changes. Drawing first ties a changing thing to a high cost. The boundary of the first release — in, waiting, untouched — closes together with the sentence.
To start, one real example from the last week is enough: an order, a quote or a complaint email. If there is no example, the role and the step are still written. An invented flow collapses in the first week.
Write the first sentence in the web app development and IT partner brief. The work before any screen: discovery sprint.