How We Work
Every project at Beacon Coders, regardless of practice, runs through the same five stages: discovery, design, build, test and harden, and launch and support. The stages do not vary by service; what varies is how long each one takes and what specifically gets built inside it. We use the same structure across web development, mobile app development, software development and AI development specifically so the process stays predictable even when the product does not.
Stage one: discovery
Discovery maps the business problem, the users, and the constraints before anyone writes a line of code, and it ends with a scope document that has a fixed number attached — not a rough estimate with caveats, a number we stand behind. This typically takes one to two weeks, longer for projects with complex business logic or multiple integrations, since software projects fail more often from unclear requirements than from bad code, and we would rather spend an extra few days here than discover a wrong assumption six weeks into the build.
We push for specifics during discovery rather than accept a generic requirement — not "we need a CRM" but the actual pipeline stages your sales team uses today, not "we need it to be fast" but the actual response time a slow page currently costs you in abandoned checkouts. Vague requirements produce vague scope documents, and vague scope documents are where budget overruns start.
Stage two: design
Design produces wireframes, then interface design, then a clickable prototype you approve before development starts, typically running two to three weeks, led on every project by our head of design. We test flows with the prototype before a single line of production code is written, because restructuring a wireframe costs far less than restructuring a finished, built feature. For projects with an existing brand system, we design within it; for projects starting fresh, we build a design system alongside the interface so your developers — ours or, eventually, your own — are working from consistent, documented components rather than one-off screens.
Stage three: build
Build happens in two-week sprints, and you get a working, deployed environment at the end of each one, not a written status report describing progress you cannot see. Depending on scope, this stage runs six to thirty-two weeks across our services — a straightforward automation script sits at the short end, a full ERP or SaaS platform at the long end. You can review real, running software every two weeks throughout, which is also when scope changes get raised and priced, before they become a dispute at final delivery.
Stage four: test and harden
Testing and hardening cover functional, performance, security and accessibility checks, and we publish the results rather than summarising them in a single line of sign-off. This typically takes one to two weeks. Security is not a final-week checklist item bolted onto a finished build — it is built into the architecture from discovery — but this stage is where we run a dedicated security pass and confirm the system holds up under a device and browser matrix broader than what a single development machine would reveal.
Stage five: launch and support
Launch includes deployment, monitoring, and a support agreement with named response times, not a handover email and a wave goodbye. For mobile projects, this stage includes store submission and handling review feedback directly. Most clients move to an ongoing retainer after this stage, since very little software — even a well-scoped MVP — stops needing attention entirely the day it ships.
Frequently asked questions
How this changes by engagement model
The five stages apply the same way whether you are working under fixed scope, dedicated team, or staff augmentation — the difference is what happens after stage five. A fixed-scope project typically ends with a defined support window; a dedicated-team engagement continues the same sprint cadence indefinitely as the product's roadmap grows; staff augmentation skips much of the formal discovery and design structure since you already have your own process, with the hired developer joining your existing cycle directly instead.