sdd-onboard

Spec-driven development (SDD) is a phase-driven workflow that guides codebase changes through propose, spec, design, tasks, apply, verify, and archive stages. It enforces phase gating to ensure changes remain small, reviewable, and aligned with auditable artifacts.

You can onboard your team to spec-driven development by applying an end-to-end SDD cycle directly to your real codebase. This coaching approach generates auditable artifacts like proposal.md, specs, and design docs while enforcing safe, revertible changes.

The best way to structure software design artifacts is using a standardized SDD format that produces proposal, spec, design, and tasks documents. This artifact-first approach ensures team governance, clear evaluation criteria, and repeatable outcomes across the development cycle.

You can enforce phase gating during software engineering onboarding by following a strict spec-driven development sequence. This requires completing each phase—propose, spec, design, tasks, apply, verify, archive—before advancing, ensuring changes are small and revertible.

Yes, spec-driven development workflows can operate with no external dependencies. The SDD onboarding process relies entirely on applying phase-driven governance and generating markdown artifacts within your existing codebase environment.

You should use an artifact-first approach for codebase governance when you need auditable records of changes and clear evaluation criteria. This phase-driven method ensures repeatable outcomes and safe modifications during team onboarding and software engineering collaboration.