You’ve finished the planning stage, where your idea was turned into wireframes and clear requirements (as we covered in our last article). Now it’s time to move into the development stage. This is where your idea starts becoming real, with code being written, features being built, and your product taking shape.

If you’re a non-technical founder, the development process might feel overwhelming, but don’t worry. We’ll guide you through it, step by step. In this article, we’ll explain what happens during the development stage, why it’s important, and how you can stay involved even if you don’t know how to code.

Development Stages

Pre-development: Planning and Preparation

Before anyone writes a single line of code, every project goes through the pre-development phase. You can think of this like getting ready to build a house: a solid plan ensures everything stands strong and lasts. Careful preparation can save up to 30% of development costs and reduce the risk of failure, according to industry research.

Even though you already have your requirements and wireframes, it’s important to set up everything needed before development begins – like handing the blueprints of your house to the builders at the construction site.

In this stage, we focus on four main things:

  • Assembling the right team: choosing tech experts suited to your project’s needs, making sure the right skills are in place.
  • Creating a detailed development plan: this roadmap, built from your requirements and wireframes, outlines every step and keeps the project on track with your deadlines.
  • Designing the product architecture: deciding how your software will function, making sure it’s stable and scalable.
  • Formalizing requirements: transforming your ideas and wireframes into clear, actionable tasks for developers.

Let’s take a closer look at each.

Forming the Development Team

If creating a software product is like building a house, you need skilled builders – not just people who can do a bit of everything, but specialists in their areas.

For example, we carefully select team members based on the requirements and wireframes created during the planning stage. This ensures every part of your project is handled by people with the right skills and experience.

Here’s who will be on your team:

  • Project Manager (PM): your personal guide, responsible for overseeing the project, keeping the team aligned with your goals, and updating you regularly.
  • Analyst: the same analyst from the planning stage stays on to ensure development stays faithful to your original vision.
  • Developers: coders who bring your software to life, chosen for their experience with technologies like JavaScript, PHP, Python, or others best suited for your project.
  • Testers: Quality Assurance (QA) specialists who check that every feature works as it should and catch problems early.
  • Designers: if needed, they create intuitive, appealing user interfaces or adjust and refine the designs you already have.
  • DevOps Specialists: behind-the-scenes experts who manage deployment and ensure your software runs smoothly on servers.

Research shows that diverse, cross-functional teams deliver better results. In fact, a 2017 study by Boston Consulting Group found that companies with above-average team diversity earned 19 percentage points more from innovation compared to companies with below-average diversity.

Creating the Development Plan

With your team ready, the next step is to create a development plan – a clear roadmap based on your requirements and wireframes.

We usually use a Gantt chart for this. It’s a visual timeline that lays out all tasks, their time frames, and key milestones. Imagine a calendar where each task is a bar showing when it starts and ends. This allows us to:

  • Sequence tasks logically: some tasks depend on others, and the Gantt chart helps us complete them in the right order.
  • Identify critical paths: these are the tasks that directly affect the project’s final completion date, helping us avoid delays.
  • Allocate resources efficiently: we assign workloads in a way that keeps the team productive without causing burnout.
  • Set milestones: important dates like demos or the final launch are clearly marked.

You’ll have full access to this Gantt chart, so you can track progress in real-time and always know where things stand. According to industry data, 88% of organizations use project management software, often featuring tools like Gantt charts, to improve project visibility and control.

Designing the Product Architecture

Software architecture is like a blueprint for your application, much like the plans for a house. It defines how different components interact, what technologies will be used, and how your software will be able to grow as your business expands. A well-designed architecture ensures:

  • Performance and reliability: your software runs smoothly and handles user needs.
  • Scalability: your system can grow with your business, supporting more users or data.
  • Maintainability: future updates and bug fixes can be made faster and at a lower cost.

It’s critical to get the architecture right from the start. A 2022 report by the Consortium for Information & Software Quality (CISQ) estimated that poor software quality – often caused by weak architecture – cost the U.S. economy $2.41 trillion, with technical debt alone making up $1.52 trillion.

Here’s how we handle product architecture:

  1. Initial design: developers create a detailed plan for the software’s structure and choose the technologies that best match your needs.
  2. Peer review: experienced developers from outside the project review this plan to spot potential problems.
  3. Refinement: we update the architecture based on feedback, making sure it’s strong and ready for the future.

Formalizing Requirements

Using the requirements and wireframes created during the planning stage, we now break features down into clear, actionable tasks written in technical language developers can understand.

For example, a feature like “user registration” for a mobile app might be split into several tasks: designing the registration page, coding the authentication system on both the mobile front-end and back-end, and testing its security.

We track these tasks in Jira, a popular project management tool that organizes work and keeps everything moving smoothly, ensuring no task is missed.

Managing requirements properly is essential for project success. NASA’s Cost & Economic Analysis Branch found that projects allocating 8% to 14% of their budget to requirements typically experience cost overruns of less than 60%. In comparison, projects spending less than 5% on requirements face cost overruns of 80% to 200%.

Development: Project Management and Communication

Once everything is prepared, it’s finally time to start coding! This is where your software begins to take shape, with developers writing code, testers checking for problems, and designers refining the user experience.

Before starting, it’s a good idea to review how your project will be managed and how communication will work. Here’s how it’s organized at Fora Soft:

Agile Methodology

We use the Agile methodology, a flexible and team-oriented way of working that delivers working software in short cycles called sprints (usually four weeks). It’s like building a house room by room, letting you see and adjust each part as it’s finished.

Here’s what Agile involves:

  • Sprints: each sprint delivers a set of features you can review and test.
  • Daily standups: the team holds a brief meeting each day to share updates and discuss any obstacles.
  • Continuous integration: developers regularly add new code to the project to spot problems early.
  • Client involvement: your feedback after each sprint helps guide future development, ensuring the software stays true to your vision.

Agile makes it easy to adjust to changes, like new ideas or market shifts, while staying on track with your goals. According to the Standish Group’s 2020 Chaos Report, Agile projects have a 42% success rate, compared to just 13% for traditional Waterfall projects, showing its effectiveness in delivering good results.

Communication with Client

The Project Manager (PM) is your main point of contact, acting as a link between you and the development team. They make sure your ideas are understood, translate your feedback into technical tasks, and keep you informed on progress.

Good communication is crucial – a study by the Project Management Institute (PMI) found that one-third of projects fail due to poor communication.

To keep you fully involved, we provide:

  • Weekly Reports: a summary of completed tasks and plans for the next week.
  • Bi-weekly or Monthly Demos: demonstrations of new features on a test server, where you can try them out and give feedback.

Additionally, a Customer Success Manager – who works independently from the development team — will check in from time to time to gather your feedback and address any concerns, making sure your experience is smooth and positive.

Quality Assurance

Quality matters in software development. It’s not just about fixing bugs – it’s about preventing them and making sure your product is strong, reliable, and supports your business goals.

It’s important to catch problems early because fixing bugs late in development is much more expensive. The software industry recognizes that fixing a bug after release can cost up to 100 times more than fixing it during the design phase.

As development moves forward, our QA team works alongside the developers, testing each new feature to make sure it works properly and integrates smoothly with the rest of the software. This way, we catch and fix issues before they become costly problems.

We use both manual testing (where testers check the software from a user’s perspective) and automated testing (which runs repeated checks quickly) to cover everything.

We’ll explain our full QA process in more detail in the next article in this series — stay tuned!

Documentation

Documentation is like an instruction manual for your software. It provides a clear record of how everything works and how it’s built. Good documentation can lower maintenance costs, which typically account for 60% to 90% of a software product’s lifetime expenses.

That’s why every decent software product needs proper documentation.

We prioritize creating clear, detailed, and easy-to-use documentation throughout development. This ensures you have all the information you need to manage and improve your software, even if you don’t have a technical background.

Following our Agile workflow, we regularly update documentation during each sprint to reflect the software’s current state, including new features or changes. This keeps it accurate and helpful as your project moves forward.

Where to Go From Here

Building software as a non-tech founder doesn’t have to be overwhelming. 

At Fora Soft, we guide you through the development journey with clear communication, careful planning, and a strong focus on quality. Our process ensures your software is reliable, scalable, and built to support your business goals.

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Ready to start your software development journey? Reach out or book a consultation right away to get started!

  • Processes