Artem Manchenkov

Specifications as the better way of software development

What if your API specification could write 80% of your code for you? Learn how a spec-first approach unblocks teams and accelerates development from day one.

Specifications as the better way of software development
#1about 4 minutes

Understanding specifications in software development

Specifications are detailed descriptions of how to make something, with common examples in software including design documents, UML diagrams, and OpenAPI.

#2about 12 minutes

Contrasting the ideal spec-first workflow with reality

The ideal specification-first approach enables parallel development, but the common code-first reality creates inconsistencies, blocked engineers, and high maintenance costs.

#3about 7 minutes

Generating code from specifications with modern tooling

Instead of generating specs from code, tools like go-swagger, openapi-generator, and AsyncAPI can generate server stubs, models, and tests directly from a specification file.

#4about 3 minutes

Applying the specification-first mindset beyond APIs

The specification-driven approach can be extended to define and generate code for metrics, storage access, search APIs, and data contracts.

#5about 4 minutes

Q&A on specifications, legacy systems, and tooling

The speaker answers questions on why tools favor code-first, how to introduce specifications to legacy systems, and the best specification languages.

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