Comment by wtetzner

My point is that you can plan as much as you want in advance, but until the rubber meets the road you will have details that you don't realize are wrong. Those might be small things, or fundamental problems you didn't realize you had.

IMO writing code isn't really more laborious than writing flowcharts and docs. I typically write code to explore the problem, and iterate until I have a good design.

What you're describing is more or less the waterfall model, which has its advantages, but also drawbacks. I don't see anything reason to treat code as only a final implementation step. It can also be a useful tool to aid in thinking and design.

> The earlier in the design and development cycle this is done, the less work you have to do over the entire SDLC and the more time/effort/money you'll save.

I believe this is only true if you treat the first code you write as the final implementation. Of course that's going to cause problems.