Most warships in Colonial history began as drawings at the various scientific institutes throughout the colonies. History has shown that the infamous Battlestars had their beginnings at the Virgo Science Academy.
First, the Council of Twelve would vote on the need for a new warship. Once that hurdle was overcome, all civilian and military institutes throughout the colonies were given permission and free reign to design and develop their models to show the council.
Various warships have been used throughout Colonial history, but none has served a far better purpose than the Battlestar. Developed at the Virgo Science Academy, it nearly was never passed, due to high costs and huge materials needed to build a single Battlestar.
After the Battlestar model was approved by the Council of Twelve, the next phase is the complete development phase. In this phase, weapon systems, life support systems and defense systems are all designed for the ship. Once the statistics and schematics of the ship are finally worked out, the next phase, the Testing phase begins.
The actual prototype of the ship is built in the Testing phase. The first Battlestar built was the prototype, Columbia. The Columbia was built very slowly and cost three times over the initial first estimate, but when the Columbia was used for the first time against a Cylon Basestar, it had terrific results.
The success of the Columbia then prompted the other colonies to build their own battlestars suited to their needs.
After the Holocaust, things changed. Ships were no longer built for personal gain or for purely planetary uses. The colonies were totally unified under a new government, all the last vestiges of former independant colonial rule were gone forever. The colonies were in this fight together, Gemoni couldn't build a Gemonese defence force now, it was all the Colonial defence force.
The design and development of ships changed after the holocaust. Formerly, the Council had more of a hand in the designing of new ships and mainly kept new designs at bay, even though the new designs were far better than their aging counterparts, the Battlestars. The arrogance of the Council insisted on the Battlestar as being the symbol of humanities fight against the Cylon oppressors.
Though Battlestars are still greatly in use today and more being built every yahren, newer, smaller ships are being developed to combat the Cylons and new enemies. These ships are better armored and better equiped to fight than the Battlestars.