Answers
How long does a custom software project take?
A focused build typically runs three to six months from discovery to a live production release, with working software demonstrated every two weeks along the way. Larger platform work runs longer, but a genuinely usable first version should always arrive early, not months into the build.
Timeline depends heavily on scope, but the shape of the process stays consistent regardless of size: discovery to understand the real requirements and constraints, design to validate the approach with real users before a line of production code is written, build in two-week increments with working software at every demo, verification covering functional, security, and accessibility testing, and a run phase covering the monitoring and iteration that continues after launch.
A focused build — a single well-defined platform or feature set — typically moves through that whole cycle in three to six months. Larger platform work, or a project touching several existing systems, runs longer, but the two-week demo cadence stays constant either way, so you're never waiting months to see whether the direction is right. If a quote promises a fully finished platform with no visible progress before month four, that's the number worth questioning, not the total.