FOUNDER & CEO | USERDOC
Chris Rickard
A thought leader at the edge of AI and Business Analysis, Chris Rickard has directed software development teams across Australia, Canada, and the U.S. Most recently, he is the founder and CEO of Userdoc — a web platform that helps businesses build better software requirements using AI.
Drawing on years of experience as a business analyst and product owner, Chris understands that great software starts with great requirements — and he has dedicated Userdoc to that mission.
Presentation: Spec-driven Development – Harnessing AI Agents to Deliver Software from Better Requirements
AI in software development first appeared as conversational prompting – a human asking for small outputs. Now we have autonomous AI agents capable of analysing, designing, coding, and testing. In this new era, the way we express requirements must change. User stories and acceptance criteria are not enough. To guide AI effectively, we must codify business intent, standards, guidelines, and architectural rules into richer specifications. This session introduces Spec-driven Development – a practical way for Business Analysts to create specs that AI agents can use to build and validate software, while keeping requirements as living documentation.
Learning Outcomes:
- Why traditional user stories and acceptance criteria are no longer enough in the era of AI agents.
- What richer specifications look like – capturing intent, standards, and architectural rules.
- How AI agents can use specs to generate design, code, and tests.
- How BAs can introduce Spec-driven Development into their organisations today.