spec-driven-development

Spec-driven development creates structured specifications before coding to clarify requirements and prevent wasted implementation effort. Apply this approach when starting new projects, making architectural decisions, or when requirements are ambiguous and tasks touch multiple modules.

To break down ambiguous requirements, describe the user, goal, constraints, and acceptance criteria in one paragraph. The process generates a documented spec covering objective, executable commands, project structure, code style, testing strategy, boundaries, and explicit assumptions for human review.

Yes, the spec-driven workflow uses a gated four-phase process: Specify, Plan, Tasks, and Implement. Human review gates exist between these phases to reduce hidden assumptions, catch tooling mistakes, and ensure stakeholders agree on scope before any code is written.

Yes, you can use spec-driven development for existing projects when making architectural decisions or adding features that touch multiple modules. It produces a complete spec blueprint with success criteria and explicit assumptions to prevent costly rework.

The best way to prevent wasted effort is producing a clear, testable specification before writing code. This ensures all stakeholders agree on scope, success criteria, and assumptions, eliminating guesswork and reducing costly rework during implementation.

Starting without a specification leads to rework because hidden assumptions and ambiguous requirements cause misaligned implementation. A documented spec with executable commands, testing strategy, and acceptance criteria clarifies scope and ensures stakeholders agree before coding begins.