Software development is an iterative logical process that aims to create a computer coded or programmed software to address a unique business or personal objective, goal or process.

Software development is generally a planned initiative that consists of various steps or stages that result in the creation of operational software.

Software development is primarily achieved through computer programming, which is carried out by a software programmer and includes processes such as initial research, data flow design, process flow design, flow charts, technical documentation, software testing, debugging and other software architecture techniques.

This is known as the software development life cycle.

Software visualization is the practice of creating visual tools to map software elements or otherwise display aspects of source code. This can be done with all kinds of programming languages in different ways with different criteria and tools.

Software visualization can be used for quality control in software development or, again, to try to reverse-engineer code.