Free playbook: A practical operating model for AI across the SDLC

Planning software for AI coding agents

Product thinking, technical deep-dives, and lessons on planning software for agentic development.

All Topics8AI Development8Developer Tools7Engineering Teams8Product Management1Project Management1Spec Governance7

8 articles tagged “AI Development”

Diagram of the agentic SDLC: AI agents plan, build, test, ship, and operate across every stage, with human approval gates between planning and build and between test and ship where teams keep control
AI Development13 min read

The Agentic SDLC: What Changes When Agents Touch Every Stage

The agentic SDLC puts AI agents on every stage of software delivery — planning, coding, testing, shipping. Here's what actually changes at each stage, and where human approval gates decide whether it holds.

Dishant Sethi

Dishant Sethi

October 7, 2026
Comparison cover for CodeRabbit Plan versus Enact — a plan that lives in the issue tracker versus a plan that is grounded, approved, and spans every repo
AI Development17 min read

CodeRabbit Plan Alternative: How Enact Compares on Team Planning

An honest, side-by-side read on CodeRabbit Issue Planner and Enact — two tools that plan before the agent builds, with different ideas about where the plan lives and who signs it off.

Dishant Sethi

Dishant Sethi

October 2, 2026
Comparison cover for ProdE versus Enact — living specs kept synced to the codebase versus a plan product and engineering approve together, section by section
AI Development15 min read

ProdE Alternative: How Enact Compares on Agentic Planning

An honest, side-by-side read on ProdE and Enact — two codebase-aware planning layers for agentic development, with different ideas about living specs, approval, and who signs a plan off.

Dishant Sethi

Dishant Sethi

October 9, 2026
Diagram contrasting solo spec-driven development, where one developer who knows the whole codebase writes an accurate spec, against a team where the spec writer lacks full context — with the spec, plan, tasks, agent workflow that keeps decisions in human hands
AI Development11 min read

What Is Spec-Driven Development for Teams Using AI Agents?

Spec-driven development keeps every substantive decision in human hands before an AI agent writes code. Here's what SDD is, how the workflow runs, and why the solo-developer version has to change once a team is involved.

Dishant Sethi

Dishant Sethi

September 23, 2026
Diagram contrasting vibe coding — a fast prompt-and-iterate loop optimized for disposable code — against spec-driven development, where a reviewed specification is the source of truth the agent builds from
AI Development12 min read

Spec-Driven Development vs Vibe Coding: Why Teams Need Both

Vibe coding optimizes for speed; spec-driven development optimizes for code that survives. Here's the honest difference, when each one wins, and why a team can't pick just one.

Dishant Sethi

Dishant Sethi

October 5, 2026
Diagram of the AI-driven development lifecycle (AIDLC): agents draft requirements, code, and deployment across the Inception, Construction, and Operations phases, with a human approval gate between each phase where engineering leaders keep control
AI Development12 min read

What Is AIDLC? The AI-Driven Development Lifecycle, Explained

AIDLC — the AI-driven development lifecycle — reorders software delivery around agents that draft and humans who approve. Here's what it is, its phases, and where engineering leaders keep control.

Dishant Sethi

Dishant Sethi

September 30, 2026
Illustration of the gap between what product decided and what engineering built, with a coding agent falling into the crack between two cards, captioned: the agent didn't guess wrong, it resolved an ambiguity nobody closed
AI Development14 min read

Why AI Coding Agents Need Collaborative Planning Before They Build

AI coding agents don't stop to ask when a decision was never made — they pick a default and ship it. Here's why product and engineering have to agree on scope before an agent starts, not after.

Dishant Sethi

Dishant Sethi

September 17, 2026
Architecture diagram showing how spec driven development breaks across teams — ideal state vs team reality vs spec drift
AI Development13 min read

Why Spec Driven Development Breaks Down in Enterprise Teams

SDD works great when one developer knows the whole codebase. When teams and AI agents are involved, the same approach breaks in five predictable ways.

Dishant Sethi

Dishant Sethi

June 4, 2026