Custom software, start to handover: the six stages and what you owe each one

Custom software differs from a website in one decisive way: a website displays information you already have, while software changes how your work happens. Which means the hard part is not the code — it is describing your current work precisely.

Here are the six stages of a project done properly, and what you have to contribute at each one.

Stage 1 — Describe the work as it is today (3–7 days)

Not the software you want. The job you currently do.

We ask very specific questions: how many people touch an order before it is approved? Who enters the price? When a customer changes their mind, where does that get fixed? What do you need at month end, and what do you produce it with now?

Your part: two or three sessions of ninety minutes, with the people who actually do the work — not only the owner. The owner knows how the process should run; the staff know how it does run, and the gap between those is where software fails.

Where projects die: skipping this stage to "save time". Six weeks later you receive software that matches the process on paper and that nobody can use.

Stage 2 — Fix scope, and write down what is NOT included (2–5 days)

Scope becomes a document with two lists: in this version, and not in this version.

The second list matters more. It is what protects both sides when somebody says in week five, "obviously this has to be in there".

Your part: read and sign the second list. If reading it makes you uncomfortable, that is the moment to argue — not week five.

Stage 3 — Wireframe every screen (1–2 weeks)

Before any code, we draw each screen plainly: boxes, labels, buttons. No colour, no typography. The point is for you to click through the workflow and find what is missing.

Your part: this is the stage that needs you most. Take the wireframes and work a day on them. Enter a real order, approve it, amend it, cancel it. Every defect you find here is twenty times cheaper than finding it after the build.

Where projects die: approving wireframes by glancing and saying "looks fine". It always looks fine. Only running a real case reveals that this screen has nowhere to type a delivery note.

Stage 4 — Build, in two-week increments (4 weeks to 5 months)

Not one delivery at the end. Every two weeks you get a running build on a test environment with the finished parts in it.

Your part: 60–90 minutes per fortnight to use the new build and answer one question — is this what you need? No technical testing required; that is ours.

Where projects die: opening no build for two months, then saying at the end "this is not it". By then fixing means rebuilding.

Stage 5 — Run in parallel (2–4 weeks)

The new software runs alongside the old way of working. The same order is entered in both places and the results compared.

This stage is often cut to save money, and it is the stage that saves projects. Every wrong assumption about data — duplicate product codes, a customer with two phone numbers, an order cancelled then reinstated — surfaces here, while the old process is still a safety net.

Your part: accept doing the work twice for a few weeks. That is a real cost and belongs in the plan from the start.

Stage 6 — Handover and knowledge transfer (3–5 days)

Not emailing a zip. Handover means source code, the data schema, operating documentation, a recorded training session, and the list of things deliberately left out with the reasons.

We wrote separately about the eleven things a handover must include, because this is where businesses come up short without knowing it.

Your total time

Added up, a three-month software project needs roughly 25–35 hours of your time, unevenly spread: heavy in stages 1 and 3, light in stage 4.

If you do not have 25 hours across three months, do not start a custom software project. Buy an off-the-shelf SaaS, or wait until you do. That is the most expensive advice in this article and the advice we give most often.

How we run this

Our service follows exactly those six stages, with price and handover date written into the contract after stage 2 finishes — not before. A quote given before scope is fixed is an invented number, and we do not give one.

If you want to start with stage 1, message us on Zalo with a paragraph describing the work you currently do by hand. The first session is free.