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Specification-driven development

Software engineering methodology

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated April 24, 2026

Specification-driven development is a software development approach in which specifications are used to develop software.

Specification-driven development is a type of documentation-driven development, along with model-driven development, model transformation, and round-trip engineering.

Ostroff, Makalsky, and Paige present an agile approach to specification-driven development that combines features of test-driven development and the plan-based approach of design by contract. They describe tests and contracts as different types of specifications that are useful and complementary for developing software.

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This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Specification-driven development”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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Behavior-driven development

Behavior-driven development is an agile software development method centered around collaboration between business and IT professionals that have a stake in finding a solution for a complex problem. The core objective is to achieve a shared understanding of the problem.

Design by contract

Design by contract, also known as contract programming, programming by contract and design-by-contract programming, is an approach for designing software. It prescribes that software designers should define formal, precise and verifiable interface specifications for software components, which extend the ordinary definition of abstract data types with preconditions, postconditions and invariants.

Formal methods

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