Domain Modeling and Maintainability

A good domain model captures meaningful business invariants. Value objects are useful when a concept has identity-independent rules such as money, email addresses, coordinates, or date ranges.

public final class Money {
    private final BigDecimal amount;
    private final Currency currency;

    public Money(BigDecimal amount, Currency currency) {
        this.amount = amount;
        this.currency = currency;
    }
}

Avoid both extremes: scattering business rules everywhere and turning every simple CRUD operation into an elaborate framework.

Key Takeaways
  • Put important invariants near the model that owns them.
  • Value objects capture concepts and their rules.
  • Architecture should reflect real business complexity rather than ceremony.