📕 Implementing Domain-Driven Design Review
Tags: books, ddd, reading
Published: 2022-05-16 09:00:05

---
title: 📕 Implementing Domain-Driven Design Review
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date: 2022-05-13 00:00:00 UTC
tags: Books,DDD,Reading
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---

Implementing Domain-Driven Design aka _The Red Book_. I held high expectations for this title, did it deliver? Find out in this review.

## 📜 About The Red Book

[Implementing Domain-Driven Design by Vaughn Vernon](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15756865-implementing-domain-driven-design), dubbed _The Red Book_ by the Domain-Driven Design (DDD) community, often recommended as a valuable companion to the original blue book.

After reading it myself I agree. It has been a great help to solidify my knowledge about DDD, but more on that later.

First thing you’ll notice: this book is hefty. Coming in at 538 pages (excluding a lengthy appendix), reading and grasping Implementing DDD will take a while.

The book is composed of 14 chapters, arranged sensibly as follows:

- Introduction to DDD
- Strategic Patterns
- Architecture
- Tactical Patterns
- Application Concerns

_But what sets it apart from [The Blue Book](/domain-driven-design-book-review/)?_

## 📘 Differences With The Blue Book

Although it touches on the same concepts from the original book, contrary to it, The Red Book introduces _Strategic Patterns_ before the _Tactical Patterns_. It also delves into the concept of _Domain Events_, which weren’t covered in The Blue Book.

Throughout the book, the reader follows a fictional case study, complete with supporting code samples. This helps make the abstract ideas concrete, hence the “Implementing” part of the title.

How does it all add up? Is it a valuable book to add to your collection? Let’s find out.

## ⚖️ A Great Book, But…

All things considered, I do think this book should be on your bookshelf, but it is not without its flaws.

Aspects of the book I liked were:

- **Case study & code samples** help you thoroughly understand DDD concepts.
- **Domain events & event sourcing** are covered extensively. These architectural styles are great to have in your “toolbox” and were not covered in The Blue Book.
- **Strategic over tactical patterns**. This book does a good job of prioritizing the two and emphasizes how DDD’s effectiveness is crippled without properly applying both.

Things I disliked about it were:

- **Fluff** caused by the author taking his time to get to the point, as well as examples requiring a lot of explanation, distracting from the main point.
- **Code samples age** , and some examples feel outdated due to obsolete technology.
- **Concepts (mostly) identical** to The Blue Book. If you read both there will be a lot of repetition.

Implementing Domain-Driven Design is a valuable book then, but who can benefit from it most?

## 🙋 Should You Read It?

You should read Implementing Domain-Driven Design if:

- You’re new to DDD, or
- The concepts did not sink in after reading the Blue Book.

Is this you? Look no further, Implementing Domain-Driven Design will deliver. This title is more approachable than the Domain-Driven Design book, working hard to explain the concepts in a simple, and concrete way.

The adept DDD practitioner can safely skip this title, except if the chapters on _Domain Events_, _Event Sourcing_, or case studies are of particular interest to you.

I enjoyed this book a lot. After reading the Blue Book, I had a basic understanding of the concepts but struggled with applying them in practice. This title improved my grasp of DDD considerably.

## ⭐ The Verdict

Implementing Domain-Driven Design, or _The Red Book_, is an amazing book for anyone interested in Domain-Driven Design.

It has some minor flaws, but I highly recommend this book to newcomers to DDD or those who want tangible examples accompanying the abstract concepts of DDD.

_Final score: 8 out of 10._

_Do you have any recommended reading about Software Design? Share them with us in the comments!_