AI-242: Using Github Copilot and spec-kit for agentic coding and spec-driven development (SDD)

Course Length

2 days or 4 half days

Course Overview

AI-powered coding tools such as GitHub Copilot are rapidly transforming how software is designed, implemented, and maintained. This course teaches participants how to move beyond simple prompt-based coding and adopt a systematic, agentic approach that improves productivity without sacrificing quality, governance, or maintainability.

Participants will learn how to use Copilot's advanced chat and agent modes without or with spec-kit to implement “vibe coding” and Specification-Driven Development (SDD) respectively. SDD's structured methodology spans the whole software development life cycle (SDLC) and ensures that software development remains aligned with business intent, technical constraints, and long-term sustainability. The course combines conceptual foundations with extensive hands-on exercises, enabling participants to immediately apply these techniques to real-world projects.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• • Understand the differences between the various modes in Copilot Chat
• • Understand the concepts of MCP servers and tools, and configure and use them in Copilot
• • Create new applications and modify existing ones consisting of multiple files
• • Use Copilot to create and run unit and integration tests
• • Generate documentation for applications based on source code and user prompts
• • Use Copilot for source control tasks
• • Understand the limitations of “vibe-coding” and the need for a more structured methodology which spans the whole software development life cycle (SDLC)
• • Understand the main principles, advantages and disadvantages of Specification-Driven Development (SDD)
• • Explain the meaning and importance of SDD steps
• • Use SDD in greenfield projects
• • Use SDD in brownfield projects

Main Topics

Structure

Roughly 50% lecture, 50% hands on lab exercises. The lab exercises are executables with Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java, C# or C/C++.

Target Audience

Software developers and testers as well as their technical managers who want to understand and use GitHub Copilot and spec-kit in agentic coding and specification-driven software development.

Prerequisites

Experience with VSCode or similar IDEs, experience in using ChatGPT or similar chatbots, basic knowledge of the programming language used during lab exercises.

Course Modules