How to approach building an MVP

Ruby on Rails
1

I have been given a feature spec that can be considered an MVP. It is not that detailed though and we will figure out what to build based on user feedback.

But still I have been told User can signup, signin, join a team, see challenges, create a team, each challenge shows the team name associated, how much the challenge has been competed.

I dont have the UI or the wireframes yet since we have outsourced them to a design firm.

But right now does it make sense to just create some specs and keep them as pending.

Something like this

require ‘spec_helper’

feature "User can view challenges" do
	context "participating user" do
	  scenario "shows all the challenges taken up by the user" 
	  scenario "each challenge completed by the user has a tick mark"
	  scenario "each challenge that is being worked on a special icon" 
	  scenario "shows all the challenges currently taken by the user ( 1 across each category and max 3"
	  scenario "each challenge shows the date is was started on, the team name, percentage completed, days completed, days left, run rate required."
	  scenario "user should be able to delete a challenge. And when he does a pop up should appear for confirmation"
	end

	context "non participating user" do
	  scenario "can click on a challenge" 
	  scenario "sees the Challenge name, Photo, Category, Short description, Goal"
	  scenario "also shows no. of participants, Friends participating, current leaderboard "
	  scenario "there should be join button which shows a confirmation button 'yes'"
    scenario "the challenge page also shows Left nav : Members, Photos, Events, Reports, Leaderboard"
	end
end

And then keep translate them into aptrajectory by creating user stories. And keep implementing them one by one? And also I can fill them as the complexity grows because right now there features are very basic like CRUD only.

I only have a 4 month period in which I need to build the MVP and also make another mobile app with rails backend to start getting users and start getting their behaviour towards fitness. We are trying to mix tech with fitness and change their behaviour.

@cpytel, @christoomey, @benorenstein can you help me please ?

2

I wouldn’t create the specs until you start writing code (tests are code), which should be after the wireframes are done, because they will almost certainly change.

Instead, create the stories in trajectory (or whatever system you plan to use) where they can be discussed and refined.

You should participate in the wireframe process as much as possible.

3

Oh. I did tell my boss that we start using trajectory from the start but he did not understand the value behind it. Let me then add stories on trajectory and share it with him tomorrow. Because there is also a product manager involved who should be reviewing the stories.