SDD — Spec-Driven Development in Agile Teams

In this topic you'll practice Spec-Driven Development to master the methodology that turns the spec into the primary artifact of software development with AI agents, replacing conversational improvisation with clear, reviewable contracts. You'll train 10 key competencies:

• Identify the structural problems of vibe coding —implicit requirements, context degradation and architectural drift— and when they justify the move to SDD.
• Apply the four-phase flow (requirements, design, tasks, implementation), calibrating its intensity to the size of each problem through the principle of proportionality.
• Write verifiable requirements using precise acceptance criteria and EARS notation to remove the ambiguity that agents interpret literally.
• Produce pragmatic technical design documents that guide the agent without falling into over-specification or pseudocode.
• Break the design down into atomic tasks with structured prompts, organized in waves that exploit the agents' parallel execution.
• Exercise human review at the approval gates, concentrating professional judgment where the cost of correction is lowest and the information most valuable.
• Configure the boundaries system (Always / Ask First / Never) as a gradual delegation framework that balances agent autonomy with team control.
• Write intelligent specs by applying Osmani's five principles: high-level vision, professional structure, modularity, self-verification and living maintenance.
• Manage specs in legacy codebases through the Impact Report, the delta format and the project constitution as the first step of adoption.
• Integrate SDD with Scrum in AI-enabled teams, connecting the approval gates to the Product Architect, Product Builder and Agile Enabler roles and to the Sprint ceremonies.

Minimum evaluation score to earn or renew the skill: 50 (Qualified 50-64 | Professional 65-79 | Advanced 80-89 | Authority 90-100)

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