Spec-Driven Development: A Concise Overview — An English-Language Primer on a Methodology that Treats the Specification as the Primary Artifact
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: This paper is a concise, English-language overview of Spec-Driven Development (SDD), a software development methodology that treats the specification as the primary artifact—the living documentation itself—from which code and tests are derived, with humans determining intent and AI and tools performing generation. SDD is systematized in the Japanese book "Spec-Driven Development: A Practical Introduction" (Nikkei BP, 2026); because that full treatment is currently available only in Japanese, this primer is intended to give English-speaking readers the foundation needed to follow it—and, in particular, to serve as the foundation for a companion paper that proposes Spec-Driven Architecture. This paper summarizes SDD through its Three Technical Elements, its Four Principles, and its Seven Processes, and points readers to the book for the complete account.
Author: Tanaka, Hideki
Institution: Elvez (Japan)
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7163349252
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