Generic or Specific? Making sensible software design decisions
Conference (INTERMEDIATE level)
Room A
In software design and software architecture, we often face the question: should we build this generic or specific?
Usually, this is not an easy question to answer. The answer depends on a lot of different factors, including future factors you may not be aware of - yet.
In this talk, I’ll share my experiences and thought process as a developer and software architect with choosing between generic and specific solutions. I’ll talk about generic vs specific design & architecture, both on a project level and organization level. We’ll look at sharing code/components between teams, inner source culture, monorepo’s, microservices, lifecycle management of generic components and strategic design as a tool to help decide. After this talk, you’ll have practical insights that can help you to choose between generic and specific solutions yourself.
Usually, this is not an easy question to answer. The answer depends on a lot of different factors, including future factors you may not be aware of - yet.
In this talk, I’ll share my experiences and thought process as a developer and software architect with choosing between generic and specific solutions. I’ll talk about generic vs specific design & architecture, both on a project level and organization level. We’ll look at sharing code/components between teams, inner source culture, monorepo’s, microservices, lifecycle management of generic components and strategic design as a tool to help decide. After this talk, you’ll have practical insights that can help you to choose between generic and specific solutions yourself.
Bert Jan Schrijver
OpenValue
Bert Jan is CTO at OpenValue and focuses on Java, software architecture, Continuous Delivery and DevOps. Bert Jan is a Java Champion, JavaOne Rock Star speaker, Duke's Choice Award winner and leads NLJUG, the Dutch Java User Group. He loves to share his experience by speaking at conferences, writing for the Dutch Java magazine and helping out Devoxx4Kids with teaching kids how to code. Bert Jan is easily reachable on X at @bjschrijver.