RDD Manifesto
Reality should enter the room before commitment.
For most of software history, describing the product was cheaper than building it. That order shaped requirements, estimates, budgets, governance, and disappointment.
AI changed enough of that cost equation to move working software into the requirements conversation.
What RDD values
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, RDD values the items on the left when forming delivery intent.
Principles
- 01Experienced behavior reveals more than described intent.
- 02Stakeholder disagreement is progress when it happens early.
- 03Working software can be a learning medium before it becomes a production obligation.
- 04Scope should be derived from evidence, not only from interpretation.
- 05Production engineering should begin after intent has been made sufficiently real.
- 06AI does not remove discipline. It moves reality earlier.
What RDD is not
RDD is not anti-documentation. Not anti-Agile. Not anti-discovery. Not AI coding with process language.
It is a disciplined way to move working reality earlier without pretending prototypes are production systems.