Eric Evans
Domain Driven Design

I met Eric Evans in August of 2004, when his book had just came out and he was in Twin Cities at the Object Technology User Group (OTUG) talking about Ubiquitous Language, a language used by all team members to describe the domain model. I was very impressed with Eric's presentation. In very simple terms, he was able to find and explain the essence of what is often missing in domain implementations focused too much on technology.

You will not be disappointed with Eric's book. It describes patterns on how to explore a complex business domain and express it with a comprehensible software model. These patterns help me focus on central business problems while keeping the overall design of the systems understandable and manageable.

This is a must-read book for a business application designer and developer. Happy reading!

At the OTUG meeting last week, Esther Derby was going over the change model, originally introduced by Virginia Satir to help families deal with change. The model consists of 5 stages: Late Status Quo, Resistance, Chaos, Integration, and New Status Quo and describes change patterns and early indicators that occur at each stage. The model also works well for the organizations.

One of the most interesting and somewhat underestimated stages of the model is Chaos. Old behaviors do not work, old relationships are not possible, the organization is filled with rumours and uncertainty, performance decreases, the changes are at their highest risk of being reverted back... and the leadership is tested. Do you recognize these symptoms?

If you are not familiar with the work of Virginia Satir, take a look at this book: Satir Model: Family Therapy and Beyond.

You can find more information about the event at http://www.otug.org

I attended simulations on Dynamics of Distributed Teams and Crossing Cultures by Esther Derby at the AYE 2007 conference last month. I am very excited that she is giving a talk at the Object Technology User Group in January. This is a must-attend event. Do not miss it!