Resource Identification

Determine team, tools, budget, and constraints.

What This Is

Figure out what you have and what you need to build this. Before you start coding, know whether you have the people, skills, money, and tools required.

Minimum Viable Resource List

Document:

Team members + their skills
Budget range (even rough estimate)
Timeline (when does this need to be done?)
Must-use tools/platforms (company requirements, existing infrastructure)

Red flag: Starting without knowing your constraints = project stalls halfway through.

Good vs Bad Resource Planning

Bad example:

❌ “We’ll figure it out as we go”

This leads to discovering you need a machine learning expert when you’re 80% done.

Good example:

✅ “2 backend devs (Python), 1 frontend (React), $50K cloud budget, 3 months, must use company AWS account”

This tells you exactly what you’re working with.

The Three Critical Questions

Do we have the skills? If not, how do we get them? (hire, train, outsource?)
Do we have the budget? What happens if we run over?
Do we have the time? What gets cut if we’re behind schedule?

Answer these before you start, not when you hit the wall.

Common Resources to Identify

People:

Developers (what languages/frameworks?)
Designer (UI/UX work)
QA/Testers
DevOps/Infrastructure
Security specialist (even part-time)

Tools:

Development tools (IDEs, version control)
Hosting/infrastructure (AWS, Azure, self-hosted?)
Third-party services (auth, payments, email, monitoring)
CI/CD pipeline

Budget:

Cloud hosting costs
Third-party service subscriptions
Tools/licenses
External contractors if needed

Don’t need perfect numbers. Need ballpark figures so you know if you’re building a $5K project or a $500K project.