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In Chapter One of my Developing for the iPhone series, I shared some thoughts on the genesis of every project; the big bang for the entrepreneur, the idea that supports everything else. I also stated what I feel to be a truthful fact about the significance of the idea, and its role on the whole project.

What should I do now that I have that good idea? What do I need to make it happen? Is there any way to insure success?

The questions are many, and the answers are numerous; to me, none of them have a single answer, and most of them can be addressed with “it depends.“  Even though there’s no formula for success, nor a right way to go, I like to think there are a few items to consider when creating a project, which could serve as solid bases to build an idea on. I like to put them together, create activities around those items, and call them my strategy.

No matter what you’re thinking, no matter the nature of your idea or the concept of your project; the strategy is simple, universal and easy to apply. There’s no groundbreaking knowledge in it, there’s no rocket science involved, there are just a few checkpoints to review and variations to take within every checkpoint.

First, let’s summarize what the strategy includes, then I’ll be elaborating a little more about some of those items in this chapter, leaving the rest to the next article of the series.  What do I consider essential at the beginning of any project? What items does my strategy include? I could list them as follows:

• A good idea (stated before and understanding “good” as good for me right now)
• Time and funding
• Motivation
• Skills
• Info and docs
• Knowledge

If you’ve decided to go and develop for Apple’s phone, you’ll need to examine yourself in each and every one of these items.  You can cut some of them, you could add a few more, but you definitely won’t be able to go forward if you don’t set them at the beginning and respect them along the way.

When you want to start a project, one of the most important things you need to have is time. Time, over everything else (commitment is also important), is the only thing that will separate a serious project from an attempt-to-do-something kind of project.

This is a tricky stage of the journey, as sometimes you’ll have to drop something else you’re doing, and sometimes you’ll convince yourself that you don’t have to drop anything, and that you can handle the load. Most of the time, you’ll realize that taking and idea to reality takes more of you than you thought, so invest you hours and do your math wisely; your decisions here will affect everything else to come.

You’ll have to decide here how do you want to approach your project. The time you’ll invest in it will vary whether you’re planning to be doing the planning, distribution of tasks, designing, programming, debugging, controlling and distributing the application, or if you’ll be functioning as a leader of the project. Both roles are time demanding, but in different ways, for sure. Here, it’s important to make up your mind, this decision will change everything to come. 

Once you’ve decided how many hours a day/week you’ll be dedicating to this project, it’s time to think about funding. Money is important (mostly when you don’t have it), so, here you have to stop again and think the main purpose of your project, how many resources you’ll need, and how you plan to get them.

Since money management is not my area of expertise, I’ll be passing over this section. I respect what I don’t know, at least enough not to waste your time. What I can actually say here is that the more you depend on people to give life to your idea, the more money you’ll have to invest. If you happen to be one of those programmers who also has designer skills, you’ll save a few necessary bucks.

When it comes to motivation, every one of us has a story to tell. It’s so common to start a project (of any kind) with tons of enthusiasm, and then see it fade as the days go by. Why does this happen? Is there any way to avoid it?

I’ve tried to find a formula to solve this; not for every one, just for me. I think it would be easier for me to advise people on the subject if I’ve been able to solve my own case of fading motivation. To date, there’s no absolute answer I can give you. Have I won my own battle so far? I don’t think that’s a question with a definitive answer. As with some addictions, you can be winning many battles through the year, but it doesn’t mean you’ve won the war. That’s one of the life-lasting issues we have to deal with.

But I do actually have something to give here. If you happen to have fading motivations, I have something I appreciate a lot and want to share with you. It’s an article from A List Apart that I’ve made my own. Kevin Cornell has written it, and it’s called: Staying Motivated (shocking right?).

He has some good news for all of us, revealing his tips on how to move forward and keep your creative frenzy. His strategy is based on two phases: starting out and maintenance. With this knowledge, you’ll be near achieving what the experts call long-term motivation. 

In the next article, I’ll be describing the rest of the items (in which I build my strategy), and two main characters of the story: the tools (iPhone SDK, editing, control version system) and launch platform (AppStore, web, press).

See Developing for the iPhone - Chapter One: The Big Bang.

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