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Enterprise Patterns and MDA: Building Better Software with Archetype Patterns and UML
This book presents a proven method of successfully addressing the significant challenges of developing applications for the business world. Borrowing from their significant experience in corporate development, the authors present a catalog of proven and supremely useful patterns that can be applied to the idiosyncrasies of the business domain. This book also explains how to use Model-Driven Architecture to increase the efficiency of your designs, and how to further the capabilities of the industry-standard Unified Modeling Language. The result is a practical, no-nonsense approach to building robust business applications that can be immediately applied in a corporate setting.
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 27, 2025
Archetypes have been on my tech radar for a long time. I had seen a few conference talks about them and the whole concept was intriguing to me. It's an interesting book at times, but the whole concept seems to me to be ultimately too vague.
I'd divide in into two pieces.
1. MDA - Model Driven Architecture.
Funny how we currently have an explosion of generative AI tools and predictions of the end of programmers' existence! I'd like to read the second version of this chapter, written in 2025 :) But back to the content. It seemed more like a fairy tale to me than a practical way of using archetypes in real life (at least in 2004!).
2. Archetype Patterns.
As I said, the idea is brilliant. You have a set of archetypes from various domains that you can use in your real life software. Instead of coming up with a new and potentially wrong model, you can just use the one that has already been "proved in the battle", adapt it (or use the fancy word from the book which I personally adore - use one of the pleomorphism of the archetype!) and live long and happily. I've never seen this in a real life scenario so I'm quite skeptical :(
Although the authors provide many potential usecases, I see virtually only two:
- Reference source for the domain modelling phase.
- Verification source for the exsiting models.
That's how I'm planning to use this book in the future :)
Lastly, a few comments about the form. Well organized and clear but too formal, too repetitive, too few practical examples.
3- in the end.
I'd divide in into two pieces.
1. MDA - Model Driven Architecture.
Funny how we currently have an explosion of generative AI tools and predictions of the end of programmers' existence! I'd like to read the second version of this chapter, written in 2025 :) But back to the content. It seemed more like a fairy tale to me than a practical way of using archetypes in real life (at least in 2004!).
2. Archetype Patterns.
As I said, the idea is brilliant. You have a set of archetypes from various domains that you can use in your real life software. Instead of coming up with a new and potentially wrong model, you can just use the one that has already been "proved in the battle", adapt it (or use the fancy word from the book which I personally adore - use one of the pleomorphism of the archetype!) and live long and happily. I've never seen this in a real life scenario so I'm quite skeptical :(
Although the authors provide many potential usecases, I see virtually only two:
- Reference source for the domain modelling phase.
- Verification source for the exsiting models.
That's how I'm planning to use this book in the future :)
Lastly, a few comments about the form. Well organized and clear but too formal, too repetitive, too few practical examples.
3- in the end.
October 16, 2020
It's very difficult to rate and recommend the whole book all together. Basically each chapter should be treated individually. Some of them are just waste of time, some are putting a lot of great insights which definitely are very valuable at the beginning of the design process.
I enjoy the whole concept of using archetypes and reading about a few of them definitely helps. Usually, an implementation process starts from a blank page and slowly adds new things to meet business requirements. If an archetype pattern can be identified while gathering requirements the whole process is reversed, you start with a very extensive model and you start removing elements from it that are not needed. It still requires times and energy but seems like deciding what not to implement is more conscious with fewer surprises in the future that business works this way.
I enjoy the whole concept of using archetypes and reading about a few of them definitely helps. Usually, an implementation process starts from a blank page and slowly adds new things to meet business requirements. If an archetype pattern can be identified while gathering requirements the whole process is reversed, you start with a very extensive model and you start removing elements from it that are not needed. It still requires times and energy but seems like deciding what not to implement is more conscious with fewer surprises in the future that business works this way.
April 1, 2013
understanding the party model and ecommerce foundation - excellent book !
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews