What is the typical workflow for level design Thread

Hello everyone,
I am coming from a software engineering background and I am working on an indie game within Unreal Engine 4 but I am wondering what the typical workflow is for level design. I am not just talking about the textbook standard definition of the workflow but what is actually done in reality.

I imagine it would look something like this:
1) come up with an idea
2) block it out with BSP
3) Test it out
4) go back to step 1 or continue
5) add sample textures
6) test it out
7) create the level in a modeling program (maya or 3ds max)
add lighting
9) test again

However I am confused around step 7 on whether this is the common way of doing things?
Do people generally just design it in maya then import it into their engine or do they design within the engine's level editor, then recreate and finalize in the modeling program?

Any tips or advice would be appreciated.

For the step 7, levels are created in a level editor. For Unreal Engine 4, I think that would be UnrealEd 4. Modeling programs are used for more detailed models in levels.

when you block things up, you practically going to test your ideas; the theme of the map(step 7), how it going to look will only be the final part of all this process. And believe me, dont worry how the theme going to be before you actually got its layout lock with blocks outs, will save you a lot of pain.

As pratice keep the gameplay in mind, apply it on the layout (blocking in all over it) and worry if the scenery later on, since colisions are a completely different problem. In fact I even wonder you can lock the lighting in the blocking phase.

Edited by: vfn4i83