I don't think that writing software is a linear process, as much as us software developers would like it to be. Broadly speaking, there tends to be two approach

I don't think that writing software is a linear process, as much as us software developers would like it to be. Broadly speaking, there tends to be two approaches. First is documenting and designing. The second is prototyping some code. I actually sit somewhere right in the middle: prototype and use that prototype to inform my document — then I switch back and forth between the two. Really, for me, it's a circular process — not linear.