Planning Work & SpecificationsVirtual

Make the Work Agent-Ready

Planning work, specifications, and handoffs for people using coding agents.

An intermediate workshop for people using coding agents who need to turn ambiguous work into clear specifications, structured handoffs, and agent-ready tasks. You will learn how to identify deliverables, organize requirements, apply the five prompting principles, manage context for existing codebases, and decide where humans need to stay in the loop.

Investment per seat: $299
Format: Live and interactive intensive

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Workshop 2 of 3 in the Accelerator

Who this workshop is for

Product Managers
Designers
Business Analysts
Project/Program Managers
QA
Engineering Leads
Developers Using Coding Agents

Why it matters

Choose this if AI-generated work is inconsistent because tickets, specs, context, and handoffs are too vague.

Leave with

Agent-ready specs, handoff templates, context-slicing patterns, and a repeatable workflow for turning ambiguous work into executable plans for humans and coding agents.

Schedule

Upcoming sessions

Sep 1, 2026Tue · 12 PM – 5 PM ET · Virtual

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Oct 6, 2026Tue · 12 PM – 5 PM ET · Virtual

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Dec 2, 2026Wed · 12 PM – 5 PM ET · Virtual

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Private workshopsVirtual or in person · Teams of 20+ · Customizable

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The operating loop

Plan the work before you ask an agent to execute it.

This workshop teaches the planning and specification layer that makes coding agents useful: goals, deliverables, context, constraints, handoffs, review points, and iteration strategy.

GOALS: Clarify the real outcome before generating tasks
CONTEXT: Package files, constraints, examples, and architectural reality
SPEC: Write agent-ready PRDs, technical specs, and task tickets
HANDOFF: Move work cleanly between humans, agents, QA, and implementation
REVIEW: Know when to continue, retry, split, or escalate to human judgment

Outcomes

What you'll take back to work

Turn vague feature requests into actionable specs for humans and coding agents

Use the five prompting principles to create clear, reusable work artifacts

Design handoffs and context slices that let agents pick up work cleanly

Identify low-risk, high-value Tier 1 agentic tasks in your own codebase

Choose when to re-prompt, restart, split work, use worktrees, or pause for human judgment

Curriculum

What we cover

Practical, hands-on modules built from what we run with clients.

Understanding and Organizing Work

Identifying deliverables
Breaking down ambiguous requirements
Turning vague feature requests into actionable specs

The SDLC Iteration Loop

Brainstorming > identifying goals > analysis > planning > architecture
Where your spec work fits in a larger agentic pipeline
How agents and operators share the loop

The Five Prompting Principles

Description: what is being worked on
Input items: context, files, and references
Outcomes: what you want to accomplish
Hints: constraints, boundaries, and additional research

Handoff Design and Context Slicing

What the next stage actually needs
Structuring handoffs so agents can pick up work cleanly
What to include, what to leave out, and why it matters

Spec-Writing Templates

PRDs, technical specs, and task tickets formatted for agent consumption
Worksheets and domain-specific documents
Versioning your prompts as artifacts

Tier 1 Agentic Task Taxonomy

The highest-value, lowest-risk tasks to automate first
PR summarization, static analysis, documentation creation, ticket drift detection, and test plan creation
How to identify Tier 1 opportunities in your own codebase

Working with Existing Codebases

Providing codebase context and architectural constraints
Communicating conventions and patterns to the agent
Managing context for large codebases

Iteration Strategies

When to re-prompt vs. start over vs. break into sub-tasks
Error recovery and debugging prompts
What to do when the agent produces wrong or broken output

Human-in-the-Loop Decision Points

Where to pause for review vs. let the agent continue
What requirements you should never hand to an agent
Recognizing when output needs human judgment

Domain-Specific Items, Skills, and Tooling

Worksheets and documents tailored to your domain
Reusing and sharing skills across projects
Building skills for your specific workflow
Choosing the right coding agent tool for the job

Thinking Levels, Token Spend, and Worktrees

Understanding model reasoning modes
Balancing quality vs. cost vs. speed
When to use extended thinking
Managing parallel workstreams with worktrees

Assessment: Spec Writing Exercise

Submit a spec document for a real or sample project
Peer or instructor review
Gate to Level 2

Your instructors

Taught by practitioners

Elliott Fouts

CTO

This Dot Labs

Elliott leads technical direction at This Dot Labs, with a focus on helping engineering teams adopt AI tooling that actually ships. He brings 25+ years in engineering across production AI systems, Claude Code workflows, technical architecture, and team AI adoption.

Jonathan Fontanez

Engineering Lead, AI

This Dot Labs

Jonathan is an Engineering Lead, AI at This Dot Labs with 20 years of engineering experience helping teams design, build, and operationalize production software.

Rob Ocel

VP, Innovation

This Dot Labs

Rob is VP, Innovation at This Dot Labs with 20 years of experience helping teams adopt emerging technologies and turn new ideas into practical software delivery practices.

Keep exploring

Continue down the AI acceleration path

1/3 · FoundationsAI Is Already in Your SDLCFoundations for context engineering and accelerated AI utilization across software delivery.2-hour interactive live training · $199 per participant 3/3 · Creating & Managing HarnessesAutomate Without Losing ControlAdvanced patterns for creating automated agents, harnesses, and governed orchestration systems.Live and interactive intensive · $299 per participant

Need the full path?

The Agentic AI Software Delivery Lifecycle Accelerator Program.

Combine all three workshops to accelerate your organization through one connected progression: Foundations, Planning Work & Specifications, and Creating & Managing Harnesses.

Ask about team rollout →

Get certified

Become CAWA Certified.

Complete the full Agentic SDLC Accelerator and earn a practical credential in AI-assisted delivery.

Explore certification →

Tailored & custom workshops

Build a private workshop around your team, tools, and delivery process.

For teams of 20 or more, we can customize the syllabus around your SDLC, current AI tools, codebase reality, product process, governance concerns, and adoption goals.

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Get a recommendation

Tell us what your team is trying to change.

Share your team size, current AI usage, workflow pain, and timing. We'll recommend the fastest workshop path: a public seat, a focused private workshop, or the full accelerator.

What happens next

We'll review your goals and reply with the best workshop path, suggested audience, and next steps for scheduling.