Spec Driven Development (SDD)

Spec Driven Development (SDD) is an approach to software development where the specifications of the software are written before the actual implementation begins. This specification serves as a guide for developers throughout the development process. Such ideas are not new and in the past you might hear them as Model Driven Development (MDD).

Here is a summary with SDD problems:

source: https://x.com/diego_pacheco/status/1988897341584093220

Basically the problem is that more text != more clarity. There are serious context window overheads and even evidence showing more text does not necessarily drive better results. I also believe we are going back to a dangerous place where we would give code up and just manage documents. We need to remember this old catastrophic approach called Waterfall. SDD has the potential to bring waterfall back which is anti-agile.

I’m not alone, here is a great critique on SDD on Martin Fowler’s website. François Zaninotto made an even stronger critique here: Spec-Driven Development: The Waterfall Strikes Back.

My advice is that you avoid SDD.