DDD Strategic Design

DDD Strategic Design

Overview

This skill guides Domain-Driven Design strategic analysis through systematic questioning and interview planning. It helps extract domain knowledge from chaotic inputs, structure interviews with different stakeholders, and produce standard DDD strategic outputs.

Workflow

Phase 1: Input Diagnosis

When user provides unclear or mixed information about a system:

1. Identify what you have: Analyze the input type (code, documents, verbal description, requirements)
2. Identify what's missing: Determine gaps in domain understanding
3. Ask clarifying questions to establish:
   • Business context and goals
   • Key user roles and workflows
   • System boundaries and constraints
   • Existing pain points or complexity

Questioning principles:

• Start broad, then narrow down
• Ask one question at a time to avoid overwhelming
• Use "why" to uncover business rules
• Use "what if" to discover edge cases
• Use "who" to identify stakeholders and their needs

Phase 2: Domain Exploration

Guide domain discovery through progressive questioning:

1. Identify core business concepts: What are the key entities, events, and processes?
2. Find natural boundaries: Where do terms mean different things? Where do teams/​processes separate?
3. Discover business rules: What constraints, validations, or policies exist?
4. Map workflows: How do different parts of the system interact?

Red flags for context boundaries:

• Same term with different meanings in different areas
• Different teams owning different parts of workflow
• Independent change cycles
• Different data consistency requirements

Phase 3: Interview Planning

When user needs to interview stakeholders, generate targeted question sets:

For Product Managers - See references/​pm-questions.md:

• Business goals and priorities
• Success metrics
• Roadmap and constraints

For Domain Experts - See references/​expert-questions.md:

• Business rules and terminology
• Edge cases and exceptions
• Domain constraints and invariants

For End Users - See references/​user-questions.md:

• Actual workflows and pain points
• Task sequences and decision points
• Desired outcomes

Phase 4: Synthesis and Output

Transform gathered knowledge into DDD artifacts:

1. Bounded Context Analysis - Document each context's purpose, boundaries, and responsibilities
2. Context Map - Visualize relationships between contexts using standard DDD patterns
3. Ubiquitous Language - Create glossary of domain terms with precise definitions

See references/​output-templates.md for detailed formats and examples.

Iterative Refinement

Domain understanding evolves. After initial analysis:

• Identify remaining ambiguities
• Suggest follow-up questions
• Validate assumptions with stakeholders
• Refine boundaries based on new insights

References

This skill includes interview question templates and output format guides:

• references/​pm-questions.md - Question framework for Product Manager interviews
• references/​expert-questions.md - Question framework for Domain Expert interviews
• references/​user-questions.md - Question framework for End User interviews
• references/​output-templates.md - Templates for Bounded Context analysis, Context Map, and Ubiquitous Language