A Guide to Spec-Driven Development with GitHub Spec Kit w/Michael Hoffman
Details
As AI Coding Agent adoption increases, I’ve been interested in observing the emerging patterns and practices for their usage in delivering enterprise systems. Recently, a new approach has been garnering attention. It’s called Spec-Driven Development, or SDD. AI innovators are evaluating SDD's potential to deliver reliable, high-quality systems through AI Coding Agents.
In this talk, I’ll be sharing my experience with SDD using the GitHub Spec Kit tool. I’ll explain why I think the vision for SDD and the current reality seem far apart. I’ll cover potential challenges with over-specification bottlenecks, governance gaps, and spec drift. I’ll also share my opinions about where SDD might be useful and how you might improve the chances of success when applying it for development.
About Michael Hoffman
Michael Hoffman is a Technical Director at nvisia, where he has provided advisory services to enterprise clients for the past 11 years. Michael has recently focused on emerging AI tools and foundations, experimenting with AI as an enabler across multiple disciplines. Along with his role as a Technical Director, Michael also authors technical courses for Pluralsight, a leading online learning platform. He lives in Crystal Lake with his wife, and they are currently navigating empty-nesting now that their daughter attends Illinois State University.