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Back when "Alien" first came out I bought the "Making of" book. In it the concept of the life cycle of the alien was described briefly (from memory and it's been at least 10 years since I last read the book):
The basis was that of the solitary wasp. What this wasp does is that the adult female will sting a species of spider in the central nervous system paralyzing but not killing the spider. The spider is then taken back to the wasp's burrow where she lays an egg on/in the spider. The egg hatches and the wasp larva burrows into the spider host munching away at its innards but avoiding any vital organs. The larva grows and matures (pupaetes) and finally emerges as an adult and the cycle starts over again. Some species lay several eggs on a host, others gather multiple hosts or both.
The exact details of the life-cycle of the alien were never fully developed, however the concept was alien was fully capable of reproducing on it's own. Scott and his crew never envisioned the queen concept, at least it is not mentioned in the book. Some species of wasps have colonies but all the females are capable of reproducing - there is no solitary queen in a wasp colony.
There were several things that they did to suggest that the alien was progressing through its life-cycle. One of them is that the creature got progressively more slimey. The cocoon scene was added because Scott wanted to show that this thing was ready to reproduce, but again the exact life-cycle was never fully developed.
I should dig the book out of storage, if the bugs haven't gotten to it. Fitting end I suppose.
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