The DDD Dream? A Domain Expert Full-Time in a Mob 🚀
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Feb 10, 2025
Discover whether having a full-time domain expert in a Mob truly embodies the DDD dream. Explore the trade-offs of quick access versus full immersion and hear real-world stories of product owners that illustrate the impact on team effectiveness. Delve into the advantages of faster decisions and deeper collaboration paired with potential downsides, such as staying current in their field. The discussion also highlights the synergy of domain expertise with agile mob programming and the critical role effective naming plays in enhancing software development clarity.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Product Owner Availability and Team Performance
Chris shares a story of four product owners with varying availability.
The team with the least available product owner had significantly lower productivity and more problems.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Full-Time Mobbing with a Domain Expert
Austin describes his experience mobbing full-time with a domain expert in IoT.
Having the expert readily available accelerated decision-making and improved code quality, especially naming.
insights INSIGHT
Real-Time Code Naming Improvements
Domain experts in mobs improve code quality by catching naming issues early.
This "just-in-time" feedback prevents the propagation of misleading names throughout the code.
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Domain-Driven Design (DDD) is a software design approach introduced by Eric Evans in 2003. The book emphasizes the importance of understanding the business domain and creating software models that closely reflect this domain. Key concepts include the use of a Ubiquitous Language, Domain Modeling, Entities, Value Objects, Services, Aggregates, and Repositories. The book also discusses Bounded Contexts, which help in managing complex domains by decomposing them into smaller, more manageable parts. Evans stresses the iterative process of refining the model through continuous collaboration between developers and domain experts, ensuring that the software design is driven by the domain rather than by technology or frameworks[1][3][5].
Is the ultimate Domain-Driven Design (DDD) dream having a domain expert fully embedded in a Mob? Or does it come with hidden trade-offs? In this thought-provoking episode of the Mob Mentality Show, we explore the benefits, challenges, and real-world experiences of having a domain expert (or product owner) participate full-time in a Mob—not just as a consultant but as an active driver and navigator.
🔹 What We Discuss in This Episode:
✅ Quick Access vs. Full-Time Participation – Is it better to have a domain expert available when needed or fully immersed in the Mob?
✅ Real-World Stories – Chris shares insights from four product owners with different availability levels and how that impacted effectiveness. Austin reveals what happened when a domain expert became a full-time Mobber.
✅ The Pros of a Full-Time Domain Expert in a Mob – Faster decisions, deeper collaboration, improved knowledge transfer, and more!
✅ Natural Synergy with DDD – How DDD experts seamlessly jump into code naming, improving model alignment.
✅ Testers & Domain Experts: A Similar Integration? – The parallels between merging testers into a Mob and embedding domain experts.
✅ Potential Downsides – Does being in the Mob full-time reduce a domain expert’s ability to stay ahead in their field?
✅ Autonomy & Learning Diversity – How does this setup impact team growth and decision-making?
✅ Is This the DDD Dream? – With fewer moving parts (like event storming), does a domain expert in the Mob make DDD even more effective?
✅ The Power of Different Perspectives – Why having a built-in devil’s advocate can enhance team decision-making.
✅ The Truth About Cryptic Code – Can a domain expert help clarify unclear code in real time?
🎧 Don’t Miss This Insightful Discussion!
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What do you think? Would you want a domain expert full-time in your Mob? Drop a comment below! ⬇️
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