Spec-Driven AI Development and the PDLC Necessary to Support It
Imagine a coding agent that knows your business as well as your best people do.
Market intelligence. Strategic intent. Operating reality. Technical standards. All of it documented.
Guided by an AI planning agent, the product team draws from all of it: the PM, the designer, and the developer each producing their piece of the specification.
PM - Product requirements document.
Designer - UX prototype and design system.
Developer - Technical spec and architecture.
The three combine into a complete product package. Directly consumable by the coding agents.
That package feeds the build along with tech standards. The agents don't guess. They execute.
When the coding agents surface assumptions or flag gaps, the number of flagged items is a direct indicator of spec quality. Those items feed back into the product package, improving the spec before the next coding pass.
That's Spec-Driven AI development. I've designed and deployed the AI-native PDLC to make it real.
In the traditional model, PMs and developers filled gaps with judgment. A coding agent can't do that. It builds on what it's given.
It only works if one thing is true.
The Business Layer has to be documented.
Market - Your customers, partners, and competitors.
Strategy - Your direction, positioning, and committed initiatives.
Business Context - How your business operates, its domain model, workflows, and rules.
Tech Context - Your architecture patterns, API contracts, and coding standards.
But before the team gets to work, someone has to decide what they're building and why. Which problem is worth solving. Which investment is justified. Which initiative the PDLC should ingest.
That decision, made before any project is formally approved, is the one that determines everything else.
Strategic Assessment is the discipline for doing it right.
In most organizations this work falls to whoever is closest to the decision. No framework. No standing. No rigor.
ArchBA (https://www.archba.org/) formalizes Strategic Assessment as a discipline. It gives practitioners the framework, the engagement model, and the organizational standing to own this work. Before scope is set. Before any commitment is made.
The Business Layer and the PDLC connect at Strategic Assessment. ArchBA owns that connection. https://lnkd.in/gkXteW8G
If your company is struggling with spec-driven AI development, let's connect!
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