HowTo build a webapp: Document the domain model
In the previous article we did define a vision and the key features for a MVP of our app. Now we will discover the domain of our app and get a model of it. Such a domain model is a conceptual model of the entities and their relationships relevant for you app.
Why you should do it
The reason to produce this is to clarify your understanding of the problem you are trying to solve with your app. It is just a structured way to think about your software. By doing so you often will change your view on the problem: You will discover things you did not consider beforehand. In other cases you may be able to simplify your initial ideas.
So you really should focus on thinking about the domain you are addressing with your app. Creating a visual representation helps in thinking about it. This is the main reason why to do it. It’s not about creating a documentation which will last forever.
How you should do it
As we already saw in the previous section, getting the domain model is about thinking, not about documentation. That’s why I tend to use very lean techniques to visualize the domain model.
You may do a simple hand drawing. Put a box for every entity there and use linking lines to represent relationships. If you are used to UML or similar stuff you can use that of course. An UML class diagram would be a good way to do this.
Whatever you use it should come naturally. If you have to struggle with the technique (like the different associations in UML) itself this hinders your thinking process. You should not allow this. Find a technique which helps you to think about the domain.
Okay so I said documentation is not the main purpose of this step. But still I suggest you produce some kind of document to at least have all the entities you came up with. I consider such a thing as very valuable in the upcoming steps. Just don’t take this document for carved in stone and don’t put much effort in getting an extensive document.
Pomodoro App Example
To document the domain model of the example app I did create a basic UML class diagram:
As I already explained, you do not have to use UML to document this. You have to find out, what works best for you. The domain model shown above (hopefully) covers every entity in the app I am going to build. Thus we can base the API and our implementation on that.
Of course the model does not hold every class we are going to implement! It is not a class diagram to mirror your implementation. Creating the domain model is a tool to get known to the domain, the problem you are going to address with you app.
