How AI-DLC, BMAD, Spec Kit and Scrum fit one lifecycle

In this lesson you'll learn:

• where each well-known method's stages sit on the four phases;
• the decisions every one of them leaves open, and who should own each;
• how to combine a building method with the lifecycle without running two processes.

Sound familiar?#

• The team runs Scrum, the architects want Spec Kit, and a vendor is pitching AI-DLC, and the argument is about which one wins.
• Every method you evaluate has a planning phase and a building phase, and none has a clear answer to "is it good enough to ship?"
• After launch, nobody's method says who watches the agent, or who tells the sponsor what it cost.

The map settles the first by showing that the methods mostly agree. It exposes the second and third as gaps that a lifecycle has to fill, whichever method you choose.

Where does each method sit?#

How to combine them, step by step#

Step 1 · Map your method's stages onto the four phases#

Write your method's stages against P0 to P3, as in the table. Most land in P1 and P2, because most methods are about how to build. That is not a flaw. It is what they are for.

Step 2 · Find the empty cells and the thin ones#

Look for the phases your method leaves empty or covers only in part. For almost every building method the same things are missing, because they are questions about the model inside the product, not about how the product is built:

Step 3 · Give each gap an owner inside your existing ceremonies#

Do not add a second process. Put the bar and the authority budget into the planning ceremony you already hold; make the harness a required check in the pipeline you already run; add the drift chart and the two numbers to the review you already give the sponsor.

Step 4 · Keep one spec, whatever the method#

Every method above produces some form of specification. Keep one, in the repository, as the artefact agents build from, whether your tool calls it requirements.md, a spec, a PRD or a pitch. The eight fields of the agentic spec are what it must contain.

Step 5 · Hold the phase exits, not the method's ceremonies#

What makes it work is not the rituals but the exits: each phase ends on evidence, and P1 → P2 is the hard gate. A team can run Scrum, Spec Kit and AI-DLC's mob sessions and still skip every exit; a team that holds the exits can run any of them.

Where you'll use it#

• When choosing a method: map the candidates first, and choose on what fits your team, since the gaps are the same.
• When two teams run different methods: the four phases are the shared vocabulary for hand-offs.
• When auditing a programme: an empty P3 column is the most common and most expensive gap.

Why it matters#

Method arguments are expensive and mostly beside the point. The failures that cancel agentic projects (escalating cost, unclear value, weak risk controls) live in the cells that every building method leaves empty. Mapping them makes that visible in one table.

Key takeaways#

1. Every method fits the four phases, and most of their stages land in P1 and P2.
2. They share the same gaps: the bar per slice, authority per action, proof before launch, and the operating loop.
3. Combine without a second process: own the gaps inside your existing ceremonies, keep one spec, and hold the phase exits.

FAQ#

Can I use AI-DLC with Scrum?#

Yes. The ceremonies can stay; the planning unit shrinks from the sprint to the bolt, and Inception's Mob Elaboration can replace or feed sprint planning. The phase exits, especially the hard gate between design and build, apply whichever you keep.

What is the best AI development methodology?#

There is no best one in general. The methods mostly agree on how to build and differ in ceremony and tooling; choose the one that fits your team and tools. What decides success is whether the decisions they all leave open (the bar, the authority budget, the operating loop) have owners.

Is Shape Up compatible with AI-driven development?#

Yes. Shaping and the betting table are a strong P0; the shaped pitch is a P1 input; and the six-week cycle can be run as a sequence of bolts. Shape Up's appetite, how much time an idea deserves, pairs naturally with the value line.

What replaces the sprint when AI writes the code?#

The bolt: a slice of hours or days, carrying one unknown, integrated the same day. The term comes from AWS's AI-DLC; the rule of one unknown per bolt is this manual's.

Apply it in your role#

Across the enterprise. Let teams choose methods and standardise the hand-offs: four checklists, one evidence pack index and one portfolio report, whatever each team calls its stages.

The ten-minute workflow. One map of every method your organisation uses:

Our teams use <methods>. Map each method's stages onto P0 Frame, P1 Design & Spec, P2 Build & Prove
and P3 Run & Learn in one table. Then list what each method leaves unsaid on three points: an
acceptance bar per slice, authority enforced per action, and production evidence of value beside cost.

Sources and credits#