Write who will use the project, what it should help them do and what the first version includes. Define a finish condition you can inspect. Keep optional ideas separately and compare additions with the brief before changing the scope of the work.
You begin a personal project with a clear feeling but few concrete decisions. As you work, new possibilities appear. The project expands until you cannot tell which parts are needed for the first finished version.
Write who the project is for, what it should do and what the first version includes. Use ordinary language. A garden record for your own planting decisions needs a different level of detail from a guide you intend to share widely.
Keep the first version small enough to finish
List the essentials and place optional additions in a separate note. Choose a finish condition you can check, such as a working page containing one season's records. Give yourself a review point after completing that version.
When a new idea appears, compare it with the brief before adding it. You can change the brief if the purpose has genuinely changed. Record that choice so you are not moving the finish line simply because another feature sounds interesting during a difficult part of the work.
A brief for a planting record
An illustrative exampleImagine creating a garden record because you forget which plants did well in each container. A first brief could describe a page for your own planting decisions, containing plant names, locations and short observations. It can exclude a public website, automatic reminders and every photograph from past seasons. Make one usable page before adding features. When you think of a sharing option, place it in the optional note and check whether it serves the first purpose. If your purpose later becomes helping a community garden, rewrite the brief and identify new requirements. The first version can still be finished without meeting the expectations of an audience you had not originally chosen.
Check the first-version brief
Tick the steps as you work through them.
0 of 5 steps checked
When every addition sounds necessary
Ask what would fail for the intended user without the addition. A missing plant location affects the planting decision; decorative layouts may wait. Where an addition reveals a genuine requirement, update the scope and estimate together. Keep a record of that decision so repeated changes remain visible. If you cannot define a small usable version, build one representative section and test it against the task. Its shortcomings can identify requirements more precisely than another evening expanding the idea list.
Write the project in a few sentences
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