"The development" or simply "development"?

Considering that the phrase 'development and implementation' is strictly correlated to your 'cunning plan', I would use 'the' before that. However, without 'the' it is still semantically correct.

Collins English Dictionary defines an articles as "a kind of determiner, occurring in many languages including English, that lacks independent meaning but may serve to indicate the specificity of reference of the noun phrase with which it occurs".

I am sure you remember that the definite article is 'the' and the indefinite articles are 'a' or 'an'; nevertheless, when speaking in very general terms, 'the' can be used instead of 'a' to make something less specific.*

Another way to make a statement more general is to use no article at all.†

* The submission argues that the development "would destroy the ambience that this small resort has enjoyed". —Irish Times (2002)

† He recalled Hyde's drawn, unshaven face watching him, staring, like a photographic negative waiting for development, reality. —Thomas, Craig, The Last Raven (1990)

Conclusively, it does not exist a grammatical rule to correlate the 'the' use to nouns denoting process in formal texts and circumstances.