This really does need a diagram (and future article) but I always draw the V with a leading flat-line because so much needs to happen before development starts. That pre-development work may be estimating, negotiating, etc. that help create a business case (or contriact) that justifies the development effort.

Anyway, my point is that this early work is essential in a Waterfall development (but is redundant in Agile projects because it is iterative anyway) where a mini-v is necesary to establish a project’s scope before the real development starts – an often unrecognized stage. Your multiple V of different sizes helped make this visually clearer for me.