What is spec-driven development?

Semantic diffusion, combined with the pace of technology change, makes talking about AI-adjacent practices and techniques incredibly diffficult. There are few better examples of this issue than the term 'spec-driven development'. Although it's not new — its coinage precedes our current AI moment — it has become ubiquitous over the last six months or so as software professionals attempt to develop a vocabulary for talking about how they're developing methods for working successfully with coding agents.

On this episode of the Technology Podcast, Birgitta Böckeler is joined by Laura Tacho — Developer Experience at AWS — to discuss all things spec-driven development. From competing definitions to different interpretations, implementations and workflows, the discussion provides a frank and grounded look at one of the most discussed and debated terms in modern software engineering.

Learn more about Laura's work by visiting her website: https://lauratacho.com/

Read Birgitta's article on spec-driven development on Martin Fowler's website: https://martinfowler.com/articles/exploring-gen-ai/sdd-3-tools.html

Learn more about The Future of Software Development Retreat discussed on this episode and explore some of the key insights: https://www.thoughtworks.com/about-us/events/the-future-of-software-development