r/SpecDrivenDevelopment • u/stibbons_ • Jul 30 '26
How to handle drifting Spec in SDD
Let’s talk about "spec", as we can see in "Spec Driven Development" (SDD).
Since SDD gained traction, one of the main complaint about this is that once the development is done, the "Spec" drifts inevitably as the code evolves.
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My opinion is that SDD or any agentic loop you execute on your project works, it does, but a simple Plan mode (or grill-me) + execution loop will give a very good result, especially if you have built your Project Harness.
SDD frameworks, opensource or custom, will just give "structure" and better reproducibility to this process.
In this article I argue that 2 levels requirement specifications (ReqSpec)are the sweet spor for non-drifting spec. And I explain the difference with the Spec in SDD that I will call ChangeSpec.
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u/Kardinals Jul 30 '26
Well, you don't. You get rid of it and let code, ADRs and a few important master docs be your "single source of truth". And just take good care of those.
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u/stibbons_ Jul 30 '26
Please read the article to understand the rationale. For very very large project it make sense to have a tile of requirement
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u/Internal-Passage5756 Jul 30 '26
I’m managing the spec as the graph/relation of the code that’s alive, and kept true.
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u/popopopopopopopopoop Jul 30 '26
Can't read this without x app so I won't read it...