Episode 277: Moving Towards Spec-Driven Development
The Real Python Podcast
What are the advantages of spec-driven development compared to vibe coding with an LLM? Are these recent trends a move toward declarative programming? This week on the show, Marc Brooker, VP and Distinguished Engineer at AWS, joins us to discuss specification-driven development and Kiro.
Marc describes the process of developing an application by writing specifications, which outline what a program should do and what needs it should meet. We dig into a bit of computer science history to explore the differences between declarative and imperative programming.
We also discuss Kiro, a new integrated development environment from Amazon, built around turning prompts into structured requirements. We examine the various types of documents used to specify tasks, requirements, design, and steering.
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Topics:
- 00:00:00 – Introduction
- 00:02:41 – How did you get involved in open source?
- 00:07:23 – How would you describe spec-driven development?
- 00:10:49 – Balancing the desire to start coding with defining the project
- 00:13:06 – What does this documentation look like?
- 00:18:27 – Declarative vs imperative programming
- 00:24:13 – Infrastructure as part of the design
- 00:27:03 – Getting started with a small project
- 00:29:05 – Committing the spec files along with the code
- 00:31:08 – What is steering?
- 00:34:17 – How to get better at distilling specifications?
- 00:38:59 – What are anti-patterns in spec-driven development?
- 00:41:08 – Should you avoid third-party libraries?
- 00:43:16 – Real Python Resource Spotlight
- 00:44:39 – Getting started with Kiro
- 00:51:00 – Neuro-symbolic AI
- 00:55:41 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
- 00:58:36 – What do you want to learn next?
- 01:00:18 – How can people follow your work online?
- 01:00:57 – Thanks and goodbye
Show Links:
- Kiro and the future of AI spec-driven software development - Kiro
- Marc Brooker’s Blog - Marc’s Blog
- Kiro: The AI IDE for prototype to production
- Beyond Prompts: The Future of AI-Assisted Development | Marc Brooker - YouTube
- Understanding Spec-Driven-Development: Kiro, spec-kit, and Tessl
- Declarative programming - Wikipedia
- Behaviour-Driven Development - Cucumber
- Steering - Docs - Kiro
- Best practices - Docs - Kiro
- CLI - Kiro
- Does your code match your spec? - Kiro
- Amazon takes on AI’s biggest nightmare: Hallucinations - Fast Company
- Neuro-symbolic AI - Wikipedia
- Spec-Driven Development: The Waterfall Strikes Back
- G-code - Wikipedia
- Marc Brooker (@MarcJBrooker) / X
- Marc Brooker (@marcbrooker@fediscience.org)
- Marc Brooker - LinkedIn
