Critique of Spec-Driven Development: Balancing Structure and Agility in AI Programming
By
vinhnx
A baker's-dozen of insight crammed into one ring.
Summary
The article critiques Spec-Driven Development (SDD), a modern approach that revives Waterfall-era heavy documentation practices for AI-driven programming. It argues that while SDD frameworks like Kiro, Spec-kit, Bmad, and Tessl aim to provide structure for coding assistants, they risk stifling agility by turning business analysts into Markdown reviewers. The author suggests that a more iterative, natural-language approach would better suit modern development needs than rigid specification-driven methodologies.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledSpec-Driven Development (SDD) revives the old idea of heavy documentation before coding — an echo of the Waterfall era.
While it promises structure for AI-driven programming, it risks burying agility under layers of Markdown.
Coding assistants are intimidating: instead of an IDE full of familiar menus and buttons, developers are left with a simple chat input.
Kiro, Spec-kit, Bmad, Tessl, and other SDD frameworks turn business analysts into Markdown reviewers.
Isn't there a more agile way to use Coding Agents?
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