The details of the process used for a development effort varies. The process may be confined to a formal, documented standard, or it can be customized and emergent for the development effort. The process may be sequential, in which each major phase (i.e. design, implement and test) is completed before the next begins, but an iterative approach – where small aspects are separately designed, implemented and tested – can reduce risk and cost and increase quality.

Design involves choices about the implementation of the software, such as which programming languages and database software to use, or how the hardware and network communications will be organized. Design may be iterative with users consulted about their needs in a process of trial and error. Design often involves people expert in aspect such as database design, screen architecture, and the performance of servers and other hardware. Designers often attempt to find patterns in the software's functionality to spin off distinct modules that can be reused with object-oriented programming. An example of this is the model–view–controller, an interface between a graphical user interface and the backend.

The central feature of software development is creating and understanding the software that implements the desired functionality. There are various strategies for writing the code. Cohesive software has various components that are independent from each other. Coupling is the interrelation of different software components, which is viewed as undesirable because it increases the difficulty of maintenance. Testing is the process of ensuring that the code executes correctly and without errors. Debugging is performed by each software developer on their own code to confirm that the code does what it is intended to.