Intent-Driven Development – My Focus for ’26

Transforming AI from chaotic productivity tools into disciplined development partners.

The world of tech is moving so quickly, and AI is so disruptive, that you need to step back and really consider what is important, where you want to be, and how you are going to get there. I’ve spent a lot of time pondering what my 2026 should like and think the term Intent-Driven Development (IDD) summarises it best.

For me, I’ve spent almost 30 years bridging the gap between human needs and technical solutions. We used to be limited by what we could build. Now, more than ever, we’re limited by how clearly we can express what we want to build. The gap between “vague idea” and “working system” is closing rapidly, which means the quality of our human intent directly determines the quality of our outcomes. If we specify badly, we’re just building rubbish more quickly.

Speed without clarity isn’t progress, it’s just faster failure.

Agentic AI will build almost anything we ask for, at breakneck speed. The question is: are we asking for the right thing?

Intent-Drive Development (IDD) is the new discipline we need:
IDD forces clarity before code by asking fundamental questions:

1️⃣ What’s the intent? – What problem are we actually solving? What value does this create? Why does this need to exist?
2️⃣ What does success look like? – What are the concrete outcomes we expect? How will we know it’s working correctly? What are the acceptance criteria?
3️⃣ How will we prove it works? – What specific test cases must pass? What scenarios need to be validated? What edge cases need to be handled?
4️⃣ What constraints must we respect? – What performance requirements, security implications, integration points, technical limitations must we consider?
5️⃣ What are the ethical implications? – Who is impacted by this being built? What could go wrong if this works exactly as specified? Are we building something we should build, not just something we can build? What biases or assumptions are baked into our intent?

This isn’t just better prompting. It’s a methodology for human-AI collaboration that front-loads the thinking where it matters most.

Just as TDD taught developers to think in tests, IDD can teach everyone to think in intent and outcomes first. It creates:

• Faster iterations – clear intent means fewer “that’s not what I meant” cycles
• Measurable success – you know exactly when you’re done because you defined the tests first
• A bridge to non-technical stakeholders – intent is easier to discuss than code, improving collaboration
• Professionalism in AI era – standards that protect people when the field desperately needs them
• Future-proof skills – as AI gets better at coding, defining good intent becomes the differentiating human skill

This is going to be my focus in 2026, building out the concept of Intent-Driven Development (IDD) as a new methodology.

Just sayin’ 🙂

#IntentDrivenDevelopment #IDD #AI #AgenticAI #SoftwareArchitecture #TechLeadership #TDD

Check out the other articles in this series …

Next Article ->

How Intent-Driven Development (IDD) Bridges UCD, DDD, BDD, and TDD in the AI Era

User-Centred Design, Domain-Driven Design, Behaviour-Driven Development and Test-Driven Development each solve part of the problem. In the AI era, Intent-Driven Development (IDD) brings them together by making intent explicit before automated systems turn ideas into working software.