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 (@[email protected])
• Marc Brooker - LinkedIn

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