Spec-Driven Dev Is Back. But Not How You Think • Daniel Terhorst-North & Gojko Adzic • GOTO 2026

This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted. #GOTOcon #GOTOunscripted
https://gotopia.tech

Daniel Terhorst-North - Originator of Behavior Driven Development (BDD) & Principal at Dan North & Associates @daniel-terhorst-north 
Gojko Adzic - Software Delivery Consultant & Author of "Lizard Optimization" and many more Books @gojkoadzic7231 

Check out more here:
https://gotopia.tech/articles/441

RESOURCES
Daniel
https://bsky.app/profile/tastapod.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tastapod
https://github.com/tastapod
https://mastodon.social/@tastapod
http://dannorth.net/blog

Gojko
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gojko
https://github.com/gojko
https://twitter.com/gojkoadzic
https://gojko.net

Links
https://youtu.be/TgdFA72crHM
https://youtu.be/YU9p_p4aIW8
https://youtu.be/o3--D6ydS4o
https://youtu.be/ybA0zxwgpxw
https://youtu.be/XjwJeHRa53A
https://youtu.be/ShAzlhS_TCg
https://youtu.be/5iqMTP9Ja5k
https://youtu.be/ekOTT0siHSo
https://youtu.be/W6f8nslLYzk
https://youtu.be/gVucnhnyYTw
https://youtu.be/5_IW7npQk9k
https://youtu.be/vMWsp_ieheU
https://youtu.be/rfjpzCqBH0k

DESCRIPTION
Gojko Adzic and Daniel Terhorst-North tackle the question every software team is wrestling with right now: does AI-assisted development actually work, and if so, how?
Their verdict is nuanced. One-shot "spec-to-product" approaches are doomed — both compare them to CASE tools and model-driven architecture of past decades, great for selling to enterprise buyers, disappointing in practice. What does work is tight, iterative feedback loops where AI handles the more deterministic, structural parts of the job while humans retain ownership of domain knowledge, semantic correctness, and architectural judgment.

The most practically useful thread of the conversation is Gojko's insight on guardrails: instead of relying on markdown files and hoping your AI agent stays in line, encode your rules as real, automated linting checks — ones that run in CI, apply to humans and bots alike, and include actionable error messages.
Daniel adds a complementary observation: AI shines brightest not on core domain code, but on the "quality of life" tasks that never quite make it to the backlog. Their shared conclusion is that the teams winning with AI right now are the ones treating published frameworks as starting templates to rapidly adapt — not gospel to follow blindly.

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
00:23 "Spec-to-Code AI will never work" — Here's why
06:34 We've seen this before (And it didn't end well)
10:39 The trick: Get AI to enforce its own rules
16:59 AI for quality of life, not core domain logic
28:28 Automation makes things faster — Not better
38:43 Outro

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Gojko Adzic • Lizard Optimization • https://leanpub.com/lizardoptimization
Gojko Adzic • Impact Mapping • https://amzn.to/3dQFCOq
Adzic, Evans & Roden • Fifty Quick Ideas To Improve Your Tests • https://amzn.to/3yuDaoL
Adzic, Evans & Korac • Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve Your User Stories • https://amzn.to/3jQ4QjP
Adzic & Korac • Humans vs Computers • https://amzn.to/2Utz55A
Gojko Adzic • Specification by Example • https://amzn.to/3hHrEjb
Eliyahu M. Goldratt • Beyond the Goal • https://amzn.to/3wDbAL1
Kent Beck, Fowler, John, William, Don & Gamma • Refactoring • https://amzn.to/3SFBYbN

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