There was this interdisciplinary course during my PhD studies where computer science students were meeting (traditional) architecture students to talk about their professions and exchange ideas. It was so much fun to describe software development to them as a process of designing and bulding a structure when the investors can change their mind on the building's proportions, windows location and general application at any stage of the process, there are only some vague general rules on what a solid construction should look like and there is no external supervision involved at all to sign off the building as safe and complete. It may look surprising from an external view.
Please, write an article about it. Sounds like an incredibly rich experience.
Here's a one sentence answer that I think would help non-technology people understand software in general: It's like writing a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story in a foreign language.