Book on translating particular business problems into software implementations?

Question

I would be interested in finding a book that deals with some common business issues and how they are translated into software implementations.

For example:

• a trading system - how requirements are gathered and an appropriate technology and architecture are chosen to translate this into a web application

• an integration project - an example of how different computer systems (some combination of different databases and different software systems) are made to talk to each other using various bridge technologies such as CORBA or web services and how the project is planned out

• an ecommerce system - let's say a system for selling books or cds - how the requirements are developed, a specification is reached and an appropriate implementation is decided on

Because I have limited exposure to a particular set of domains, I would find it useful to read about other types of common business problems and how they are translated into software. Possibly no such book exists but I would be grateful for any suggestions. Thanks.

Answer 1

I don't know if you will find a single book, but a lot of your questions cut through multiple domains.

For learning about requirements and specifications, I recommend Karl Wiegers' Software Requirements (2nd Edition) and More About Software Requirements.

Your other points appear to be design issues, which are covered in design patterns books. The primary resource for general, cross-domain design patterns is the Gang of Four's Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, and since you are interested in what might be considered enterprise applications, I can also recommend Martin Fowler's Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture. Although I've never read it, it looks like Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions might also provide interesting information.

Answer 2

Check out Domain Driven Design. This is really the hard part of software, and perhaps not that amenable to a book. But this book is pretty good.