Spec-Driven Development and the AI Unified Process — with Simon Martinelli

Simon Martinelli is a Java Champion, Vaadin Champion, and Oracle ACE Pro with over three decades of experience building enterprise software. In this episode, he introduces the AI Unified Process (AIUP) — a methodology he created that combines the rigor of the Rational Unified Process with modern AI-assisted development, and makes a compelling case for why specifications, not code, should be the source of truth. We explore the difference between system use cases and user stories, and why use cases — with their actors, preconditions, main flows, alternative flows, and business rules — give AI agents far better structure to generate working code. Simon walks through the four phases of AIUP: Inception, Elaboration, Construction, and Transition, showing how specs, code, and tests evolve together iteratively while staying in sync. On the architecture side, Simon advocates for Self-Contained Systems over microservices — vertical slices that include UI, backend, and database together, reducing cognitive load for both developers and AI agents. His tech stack of choice is Vaadin for full-stack Java UI, jOOQ for type-safe explicit SQL, and Spring Boot as the application framework — a combination he argues is uniquely well-suited for AI-driven development because it keeps everything in one language with no hidden behavior. We also dig into testing strategies with Karibu Testing for browserless Vaadin tests and Playwright for end-to-end coverage, how teams of two working on bounded contexts with trunk-based development are shipping faster than ever, and why the era of AI is bringing back the Renaissance developer — the generalist who understands the full stack from business requirements to production deployment.With Simon Martinelli (linkedin.com/in/simonmartinelli), Java Champion, Vaadin Champion, Oracle ACE Pro — Software Architect & Trainer• AI Unified Process (AIUP) (unifiedprocess.ai)Spec-Driven Development with AI — Simon Martinelli (martinelli.ch/spec-driven-development-with-ai-…)Why Vaadin Is Perfect for AI-Driven Development (martinelli.ch/why-vaadin-is-perfect-for-ai-dri…)Why Vaadin and jOOQ Are a Natural Fit for AI-Driven Development (martinelli.ch/why-vaadin-and-jooq-are-a-natura…)Browserless Testing of Vaadin Applications with Karibu Testing (martinelli.ch/browserless-testing-of-vaadin-ap…)Goodbye Microservices, Hello Self-Contained Systems — Simon Martinelli (martinelli.ch/goodbye-microservices-hello-self…)Self-Contained Systems Architecture (scs-architecture.org)Vaadin Framework (vaadin.com)jOOQ — Type-Safe SQL in Java (jooq.org)Karibu Testing — GitHub (github.com/mvysny/karibu-testing)Playwright — End-to-End Testing (playwright.dev)Simon Martinelli's Blog (martinelli.ch)