A Daily Practice of Empirical Software Design - Kent Beck - DDD Europe 2023

Kent Beck discusses the economic, human, and relationship rationales behind software design, focusing on coupling, cohesion, and managing change.

Domain-Driven Design Europe 2023 - Organised by Aardling (aardling.eu/) dddeurope.com newsletter.dddeurope.com/ be.linkedin.com/company/domain-driven-design-europe bsky.app/profile/dddeu.bsky.social mastodon.social/@dddeu@m.aardling.social The economic rationale for software design is increased revenue & decreased cost. The relationship rationale for software design is to encourage trust through a steady delivery of value. The humane rationale for software design is to care for & encourage the growth of the geeks working on the software &, by extension, care for & encourage the growth of those affected by geeky decisions. A short list of principles & observations serves to explain why satisfying all these rationales is difficult--coupling & cohesion, time value versus optionality, power laws. The same list suggests a way forward for software designers in a complicated, conflicted, uncertain, & deeply human world--large changes in small, safe steps. We'll start with a 10x/day situation--you need to change some messy code. Do you tidy first? (Spoiler: likely yes, only as much as you need for now.) About Kent Beck: Kent consistently challenges software engineering dogma, promoting ideas like patterns, test-driven development, and Extreme Programming. Currently affiliated with Three Rivers Institute and Gusto, he is the author of many Addison-Wesley titles.