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Discussion on: Template Driven Development: Why it doesn't work

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yaser profile image
Yaser Al-Najjar

Thanks Barry for the nice read.

Addressing this problem in the software field is a must... especially to mid/senior developers who want their codes to be reusable every time (which rarely or never does!).

And when one sees the general picture of DDD, it's all about fighting Template Driven Development.

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Barry O Sullivan

Thanks for the comment Yaser.

You are completely correct, DDD helps us combat the idea of Template Driven Development. It comes at the problem from the opposite direction, putting the focus on the specifics of the Domain rather than generic patterns.

I think this is why so many people fall down when trying to apply DDD. They go into it and find the tactical patterns (VOs, entities, repos, etc...), which they then try to apply religiously, viewing them as templates for "good" system design. (I speak from experience here).

This is completely against DDD, which is about exploring concepts and language. The patterns are only really useful when they allow you to express the domain, otherwise they're just bloat.