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What is Specification Driven Development (SDD)?

There are many different approaches to software development. In the earliest days, there was the “Test Last” or “Code First” approach. A business analyst would work with the client to develop requirements. Once all the requirements were gathered, they would pass them to the developers, who would write the application from beginning to end. The “finished” product would be handed back to the client, or maybe to a QA team for testing (if there was a big enough budget). That testing was usually manual, and slow, and it depended on whomever was selected for testing understanding the product and what it was supposed to do, which they often really didn’t. Sometimes, the process worked. Often, it didn’t. Features and edge cases would often be missed. Critical business logic would be incorrect. The end product was often nothing like the client envisioned, or wanted. Sometimes, if there was a big enough budget available, there would be iterations to fix some of the more egregious issues. But often they would have to make do with the result.

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