BMAD Method (Part 1): Spec-Driven Development Where the Human Stays in Control
As a software architect and senior software engineer, I keep watching the same change happen in the way we build software. In the first series I wrote about GitHub Spec Kit, and I stayed on one idea that I still think matters most: spec-driven development (SDD). Write the intent first, make it explicit, let the agent build against it, then check the result against what was written. That idea does…
The article discusses the BMAD Method, a spec-driven development approach that emphasizes clear intent, human control, and versioned specifications. Spec-Driven Development (SDD) is presented as a way to ensure code is built with a clear understanding of its purpose, preventing "vibe coding" where the code's intent is lost after an AI agent generates it.
The BMAD Method breaks down the development process into four key points: intent written before code, agent working within that intent, human approval of the intent, and non-ownership of the definition of done by the agent. The BMAD Method is likened to a framework that applies the concept of SDD at scale, rather than being the idea itself.
The article then delves into a step-by-step breakdown of the BMAD Method, using commands as examples, and compares it to a previous approach called Spec Kit. The first example given is adding a "done" flag to a todo list, showing the commands used for each path, whether the todo list is already implemented or not. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of keeping the work in documents that agents can read and humans can review, with the intent clearly defined before any code is built.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
