Stages of development for code written from scratch

I'm going to try to reverse engineer the process I go through during software development. At the end of the day, this is some sort of optmization with respect to "maintainability" and "clarity". I'm haven't quite nailed down the formal definitions of these, but I'm going to try at a later stage.


So here's the process I go through if I start working on code from scratch:

1. Rapid prototyping. Use structs or classes with all public data members and functions. At this point we don't know what the structure of the problem is, so there's no point in "locking down" classes or hiding members. When the structure of the problem is not clear, "boundaries" between classes are arbitrary. Which data and what functions belong together will become clear later.
2. Exploration. Getting some results the quickest way, so as to get some iterations, user feedback, etc. 
3. Paradigm adjustment - The problem space is clearer. Classes actually correspond to concepts in the real world altho the data they operate on might be elsewhere. Even though the problem space is clear, the vocabulary used in the prototype no longer fits. 
4. Consolidation. It is now clear what problem we're trying to solve and how we're trying to solve it. As concepts are clearer so are the class boundaries. Most operations should now be on members of the same class. Most data members should be private, as they're no longer needed from the outside. Implementation details are now hidden and client code only needs to know a small fraction of it, the "interface", the API , via which the user can interact.

I believe in the end this process is about reducing code entropy, which I'm trying to define. I will ultimately need to:

• Define "code entropy" more formally
• Refine the process described in this post
• Show that the process described in this post leads to code with lower entropy

Revant previous posts:

Code entropy