What are the essential steps in planning a simple software application before coding?

Hey everyone,

Lately, I’ve been exploring how to organize my projects better and realized that when I start building a software application , I often dive straight into coding without much planning. This usually leads to missing features, messy structure, and extra rework later.

For those of you who’ve built projects before, what steps do you follow to plan things properly before writing any code?

Some questions I’m curious about:

• How do you figure out the main purpose and scope of the project?

• Do you sketch wireframes, flowcharts, or user stories first?
• How detailed should the feature list or roadmap be for a small project?

• At what point do you decide on the tools or tech stack to use?

• How do you keep things simple so you don’t get overwhelmed?

I’d love to hear about your planning process, tips, or examples — especially if it helped you avoid problems later on.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts! 🙌