From experience, developing a site boils down to five steps, or phases, 1) Content, an initial content package; 2) Design, the architecture of the site; 3) Development, creation of pages, posts, images, code, etc.; 4) Prototype, a run of the first draft site from the staging server, followed by specific revisions or additions that go back to Development, Design, or Content phases for more work; and 5) Launch, when the finished site is moved from staging to production (live). There’s a more detailed description of our Five Point Development process and the tools we use here. When the site goes live it moves into site administration for analysis and updates.