Domain Driven Design and Agile

Domain Driven Design and Agile go together. To begin, we need to go over Domain Driven Design. How you and your employees understand your domain is vital, and the best way to comprehend it is through the lens of a universal language. There must be a common language throughout your organization. The agreement on how your system works and what words you use to describe them are critical for getting everyone on the same page. The second major understanding we must come to is that everything changes constantly. You can never step in the same domain model twice. The more you analyze and the more you work with domain experts, your customer base, the deeper your domain model should become over time. This need to accept change doesn’t mean that you need to dive right into the latest trends but, go with the flow.

So how does Agile and Domain Driven Design fit together? There are four principle reasons. The first is about individuals interacting with each other. You and your employees using that universal language or agreeing on your domain model during your stand-up meetings are the best examples of this idea. Without interactions between individuals there would be no Agile teams. The second reason is a given, and a little convoluted, but you should have working software. Software will certainly fail if your teams are not on the same page and disagree on their understandings of your domain. The third is customer collaboration. Your customers and clients are the experts; they alone understand the real-world applications of your software and collaborating with them during the development process not only helps your product reach its full potential but also demonstrates the flexibility, agility, and end-user cooperation of Agile methodology.

Lastly, Change is the foundation of Domain Driven Design, and to fully implement Agile we must embrace innovation. Domain Driven Design’s constant change and Agile’s innovation can be combined for the constant growth of your domain model, and ultimately your business.