Unveiling the Software Development Process: A Comprehensive Guide
Even experienced tech founders can find the software development process confusing. Plus, it’s often unclear how these processes actually works in practice. What exactly is a user journey? What does a prototype look like? Should you be actively involved or 100% trust the team to handle it? There are so many specifics that aren’t obvious at first.
The good news is: at EDE, we go through full software development cycles from A to Z on a regular basis. Plus, we work with clients across 12+ industries. This gives us a clear understanding of which questions founders ask most often and where confusion typically happens.
That’s why we decided to break down what each stage really looks like. So you can step into your next dev project with confidence instead of fear!
Understanding the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Phases
The SDLC represents the path your idea takes from concept to launch and continuous improvement. Of course, different companies use slightly different terminology. However, the core phases remain consistent and pretty much the same. Let’s discuss them in detail.
1. Inception: Ideation and Conceptualization
Everything starts with your idea — the core reason this product should exist at all. What market need will it solve? Who will use it? Why are you investing in building this product, and what outcome do you expect? And once you can confidently answer these questions, your vision starts turning into a tangible product concept.
For outsourced projects, this stage typically includes a series of discovery workshops to:
- sharpen the product vision and core value proposition
- define target user segments and core use cases
- outline the business model and key assumptions
- identify initial risks and constraints
These sessions usually involve both sides. Key representatives from the client’s side include founders, product owners, marketing leads. From our side, it’s not just developers. There are people responsible for understanding the product, shaping the architecture, ensuring it can be built efficiently. These include product managers, business analysts, tech leads, PMs. Together, we shape and articulate your vision.
This alignment phase is essential. Even if your concept seems crystal clear, everyone must ensure the external team sees the product through the same strategic lens you do.
2. Planning: Defining Scope and Objectives
Finally, your idea turns into an action plan. Here, our business analyst (sometimes together with a solution architect) prepares the technical documentation. No worries, you don’t need to write it yourself! It describes what will be built and how it will work, so developers don’t make assumptions. They will rely on this plan during the whole project duration.
If this is your first time reviewing such documentation, validate it from a business and user perspective, not a technical one! Just answer these questions:
- Does it describe the product you want to build?
- Are the user flows and features clear and complete for you?
- Can you “mentally walk through” the product and see how it works for a real person?
You’re not expected to judge architecture or technical choices! Instead, your job is to confirm that the document reflects your vision! That nothing important for your product is missing!
3. Design: Blueprinting the Software Solution
Good design is much more than UI aesthetics. This phase defines how the product will actually work. Where will users land after clicking this or that button? Does the layout feel logical and intuitive? How they can access key features, and whether the interface stays clean rather than cluttered. Naturally, most clients aren’t designers. Thus, they usually share their overall vision and preferences with us. From there, we analyze the product type and provide recommendations on how the interface should be structured for the best user experience. The design team translates client requirements into user flows, wireframes, interface layouts.
Clients get an interactive prototype that simulates the user experience. It is basically a clickable draft version of your future product. Like a demo you can open on your phone or laptop and “use” before the real development starts.
It’s not fully designed and doesn’t have real functionality behind it, but it shows:
- what each screen will look like,
- what buttons the user can click,
- how the user moves from one step to another,
- and the overall “feel” of the product flow.
This is where misunderstandings surface early—when they’re cheap to fix!
4. Implementation: Transforming Designs into Reality
With the so-called blueprint approved, development — aka coding — begins. Engineering teams translate the design and requirements into actual working software. This phase is typically iterative. What does that mean? The product is not built in one big chunk. Instead, the tech team develops it step-by-step, in small batches (iterations or sprints). Each iteration delivers a piece of functionality. Then, we review, test, and improve it before moving on.
During this phase, our frontend developers turn designs into interactive screens users can see and click. Our back-end development squad builds the “engine” behind the product. They work on logic, databases, APIs, integrations, security, etc.
During regular reviews and demos, we show the client what’s been built so far. We also gather feedback and adjust plans as needed. So if you were worried about being kept in the dark and only seeing the final product at the end — like getting a mystery box you can’t change — that’s not how it works at all. You stay in the loop, and everything is under control 🙂 Your role as a founder here is to stay engaged—not by micromanaging code. You participate by reviewing progress, validating completed functionality.
5. Testing: Ensuring Quality and Reliability
Testing usually runs in parallel with development and strengthens, as the product matures. The objective is simple: to check if the product works as expected. Our priorities are simple: the final software version should be a) secure b) stable c) delivering a great user experience.
QA isn’t only about finding bugs. It’s also about preventing them! A strong test strategy includes functional, integration, usability, performance, and security testing. And we do them all! Before going live, a so-called user acceptance testing round confirms your product is ready for real users.
6. Deployment: Introducing the Software to Users
It is the stage when the finished software moves from the development environment to the real world. Finally, real people can start using it! What happens during this phase? In simple words, we prepare the place where your product will live 🙂 It’s the server or cloud environment where your product will run for users. Before going live, our team double-checks that everything functions, nothing is broken. The system should be ready for real traffic.
We usually provide a clear launch plan. Here, we include rollback strategy and readiness checklist to ensure a safe release without any headaches both for you and our developers!
7. Maintenance: Sustaining and Enhancing the Software
Launch is not the finish line — it’s the starting point for learning. The truth is even the most impressive product isn’t perfect on day one. Once real users start interacting with it, you’ll inevitably discover areas to improve and new opportunities to grow. As traffic increases, you’ll continue optimizing performance — either on your own or together with your development partner. For this phase, we often offer an outstaff model. You hire a dedicated specialist who continues to maintain your product. This approach is usually the most cost-efficient option for the client.
Evaluating Software Development Methodologies
The SDLC defines what needs to happen. Methodologies define how it happens!
We work in Agile, which means you see progress step-by-step, can give feedback along the way. Although other companies may use different approaches. Here’s a quick overview of the most common methodologies:
1. Waterfall Model: Sequential and Structured
A traditional, linear approach. The team finishes each phase before starting the next one.
2. Agile and Scrum: Iterative and Collaborative
Agile is all about adaptive planning and fast feedback cycles. Work is done in short iterations (sprints), with continuous improvements based on client input.
3. Incremental and Iterative: Building in Phases
This model builds the product piece by piece, adding value with each iteration.
4. V-Shaped Model: Emphasizing Verification
This one pairs each development stage with a corresponding testing stage.
5. Spiral Model: Risk-Centric Development
Ideal for complex or high-risk products. Each cycle includes planning, risk analysis, prototyping, and evaluation. So basically multiple mini-projects in one.
Navigating the Development Landscape
Critical Role of Analysis and Planning
Without a clear understanding of your market, goals, and the “why” behind your product, you risk wasting both time and money. For example, if your target audience is vague and you’re hoping the product will become popular. Or you assume that “there aren’t many competitors” (but how few is few?). This phase may feel like the least exciting part of the project, but it’s one of the most critical.
Embracing Prototyping and MVP for Validation
Prototypes and MVPs help validate assumptions. If you have them, you drastically reduce the risk of building the wrong solution. Sometimes people confuse these two concepts. A prototype focuses on user experience. It’s like an interactive sketch to test flows and usability. An MVP, on the other hand, is a functioning product!! It has all the basic features to deliver value. All the extra ones are usually built later.
The Design Journey: From Concept to Interface
Design bridges strategy and execution. That’s why it’s important to assess how well the design team understands the product not only from a visual standpoint, but also through the lenses of marketing and user behavior. This is exactly where the user journey comes in. It defines where the user will go, why they will take that path, and what they expect to achieve at the end. It’s about functionality and ease of use — not a random placement of buttons on the screen. There’s an entire science behind it 🙂
Selecting the Right Development Process
No single development methodology is universally ideal, let’s be honest. But the key is selecting one that aligns with your product maturity, risk level, collaboration model. Agile methods suit fast-moving products. Waterfall and V-Model offer more structure. Spiral model addresses complexity and risk step-by-step. The experienced tech partner should guide you depending on the product you expect to get.
Pro Tips for a Successful Product Development Life Cycle
Conclusion: Mastering the Art of Software Development
The secret behind every successful project lies in a clear product vision, a well-grounded market analysis, and—of course—the right tech partner. Look for a team that offers more than just technical expertise. The people you choose should understand user psychology, anticipate user behavior. They should take a holistic approach to your product.
If certain technical aspects still feel unclear, don’t hesitate to ask questions. Your primary role is to think as an entrepreneur and a strategic thinker! Our role is to cover all technical and boring aspects!
P.s. If you already have an exciting software idea in mind, we’d be happy to explore it together. Our goal is to give you full clarity on what your future product could look like. We’d love to talk!
FAQ
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What are the steps of the development process for a software project?
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The typical software development process steps include:
- inception to validate your idea and initial proper planning design
- coding and testing
- release
- maintenance.
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How do prototyping and MVP differ, and when should each be employed in the development process?
- A prototype is practically a clickable sketch – a raw product concept. With it, it is simpler to validate user flows and design concepts. An MVP is a functioning product!
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How can selecting a specific software development methodology impact the efficiency and outcome of a project?
- Your choice mainly influences the delivery speed and flexibility for changes. Choosing the right approach ensures the software steps align with your business priorities.