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

Conclusion
Epilogues
Looking Forward
[ Team LiB ]

---

[ Team LiB ]
Epilogues
Although it is very satisfying working on a cutting-edge project and experimenting with interesting
ideas and tools, for me it is a hollow experience if the software does not find productive use. In
fact, the true test of success is how the software serves over a period of time. I have been able to
follow the stories of some of my former projects over the years.
I'll discuss here five of those, each of which made a serious attempt at domain-driven design,
though not systematically and not by that name, of course. All of these projects did deliver
software: some managed to carry through and produce a model-driven design, while one slipped
off that track. Some of the applications continued to grow and change for many years, while one
stagnated and one died young.
The PCB design software described in Chapter 1 was a smash hit among beta users in the field.
Unfortunately, the start-up company that had initiated the project utterly failed in its marketing
function and was eventually euthanized. The software is now used by a handful of PCB engineers
who have old copies they kept from the beta program. Like any orphan software, it will continue to
work until there is some fatal change to one of the programs with which it is integrated.
The loan software whose story was told in Chapter 9 thrived and evolved along much the same
track for three years after the breakthrough I wrote about. At that point, the project was spun off
as an independent company. In the turmoil of this reorganization, the project manager who had
led the project from the beginning was ejected, and some of the core developers left with him. The
new team had a somewhat different design philosophy, not as fully committed to object modeling.
But they retained a distinct domain layer with complex behavior and continued to value domain
knowledge on the development team. Seven years after the spin-off, the software continues to be
enhanced with new features. It is the leading application in its field and serves an increasing
number of client institutions, as well as being the largest revenue stream for the company.