Recently I attended a local DDD meetup. I think the idea is slowly reaching its maturity, as after many “How to get started”, we’re moving slowly towards “How I/we/you got it wrong” kind of talks. It’s fantastic that people are openly discussing their mistakes and share lessons learned, but there’s something that really troubles me. It’s a growing DDD mythology.

Lenin is attributed with saying that a lie told often enough becomes the truth. Yes, this Lenin. Apparently he knew what he was talking about. We have quite a few of those lies already repeated over and over by well meaning people. I believe they’re trying to help, but unfortunately they didn’t check their facts before passing them on.

For example, if you’re interested in DDD, sooner or later you’ll hear that Evans got it wrong, that the order of chapters in his book is suboptimal. Some will even advise you to read the book in a specific, right order (skip chapters on tactical design and read them at the end).

People say that due to this silly error, some devs have done harm. Poor chaps got so excited with all the new ideas, that they decided to change the world right after chapter 7 (or sooner!). Before we get sidetracked into discussion on how is it even possible, that professional adults make serious decisions based on one book they didn’t even finish reading, go ahead, look at the table of contents. Do it now! It’s free.

Anything interesting?

Did you notice that tactical patterns are described only as far as part II?

Then go back to the sample content. Read it. Or if you’re in a hurry, go straight to the page 4 and scroll to the last two sentences. There. Read three sentences. Only three, I promise. The last two on page 4, and the first one on page 5.

“Technical people enjoy quantifiable problems that exercise their technical skills. Domain work is messy and demands a lot of complicated new knowledge [!!!] that doesn’t seem to add to a computer scientist’s capabilities. Instead, the technical talent goes to work on elaborate frameworks, trying to solve domain problems with technology [!!!].”*

Now let it sink in your mind.

The next time you hear somebody saying that Evans got it wrong, please, do world a favour and tell them to read the book in order. Tell them to stop reading at chapter 3, if they don’t feel like they can make it to the end. Tell them to start with the last two sentences on page 4 and the first one on page 5. Even if that’s all they’ll read about DDD, it’s worth it.

Hopefully that will save us a few “How I got DDD wrong” talks. Or if we’ll have them, then maybe at least they’ll be based on facts, rather than myths slowly becoming the truth. Because Eric nailed it, right from the very beginning.

* Emphasis is mine.