Patterns, Principles, and Practices of Domain-Driven Design

1 What Is Domain-Driven Design?

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• An introduction to the philosophy of Domain-Driven Design
• The challenges of writing software for complex problem domains
• How Domain-Driven Design manages complexity
• How Domain-Driven Design applies to both the problem and solution space
• The strategic and tactical patterns of Domain-Driven Design
• The practices and principles of Domain-Driven Design
• The misconceptions of Domain-Driven Design

Domain-Driven Design (DDD) is a development philosophy defined by Eric Evans in his seminal work Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2003). DDD is an approach to software development that enables teams to effectively manage the construction and maintenance of software for complex problem domains.

This chapter will give you a high-level introduction to DDD’s practices, patterns, and principles along with an explanation of how it will improve your approach to software development. You will learn the value of analyzing a problem space and where to focus your efforts. You will understand why collaboration, communication, and context are so important for the design of maintainable software.

At the end of this chapter you will have a solid understanding of DDD that will provide context to the detail of the various patterns, practices, and principles that are contained throughout this book. However, before we delve into how DDD handles complexity it’s important to understand what ...