Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software

Three. Binding Model and Implementation

The first thing I saw as I walked through the door was a complete class diagram printed on large sheets of paper that covered a large wall. It was my first day on a project in which smart people had spent months carefully researching and developing a detailed model of the domain. The typical object in the model had intricate associations with three or four other objects, and this web of associations had few natural borders. In this respect, the analysts had been true to the nature of the domain.

As overwhelming as the wall-size diagram was, the model did capture some knowledge. After a moderate amount of study, I learned quite a bit (though that learning was hard to direct—much like randomly browsing the ...