Presentation: "Strategic Design"

Time: Friday 13:00 - 14:00

Location: Fleming Room

Abstract:

As software development leaders, we need to think more strategically. Some design decisions affect the trajectory of the whole project or even the organization. These decisions arise in early chartering and throughout development, and they are about much more than architecture. This talk will examine these issues through the lens of the Strategic Design principles of domain-driven design, which systematize a few critical practices some successful teams do intuitively.

It is common for skilled teams to deliver software they are not proud of, due to compromises with legacy designs. Others toil for years, producing a platform that is never used to good advantage. These are strategic failures. On the other hand, there are projects with a direct explanation of how the software contributes to business goals. There are projects where designers work with a realistic view of the context of their development within the larger system, allowing them to maintain design clarity and integrity. These are strategic successes. Winning strategy starts with the domain.

Two domain-driven design principles, "Context Mapping" and "Distilling the Core Domain", help you see your strategic situation more clearly and approach strategic design decisions more systematically. These techniques require extensive interaction with domain experts as well as the leaders of the organization, in discussions broader than functional requirements. They sometimes lead to priorities quite different from our most comfortable notions.

Eric Evans, Mr. Domain Driven Design

 Eric  Evans

Eric Evans is a specialist in domain modeling and design in large business systems. Since the early 1990s, he has worked on many projects developing large business systems with objects and has been deeply involved in applying Agile processes on real projects.

Out of this range of experiences emerged the synthesis of principles and techniques shared in the book "Domain-Driven Design," Addison-Wesley 2003.

Eric now leads Domain Language, Inc., a consulting group which coaches and trains teams to make their development more productive and relevant through effective application of domain modeling and design.