Day 18. Patterns

It has often been said that software engineering is more of an art than a science. Small teams, or even individuals, have been able to create sophisticated and powerful solutions using fairly ad-hoc design and development processes. On the other hand, many large projects that have been run on traditional engineering lines have arrived over budget and late, if they arrived at all. One of the main differentiators between successful and unsuccessful projects is the experience of those creating the system architecture and their understanding of the capabilities of the platform on which they are delivering that system.

The patterns movement within software engineering attempts to capture some of the experience of successful architects and designers so that this experience can be applied more widely. The exploration of platform-specific patterns can also help designers apply appropriate patterns in the right place using the right technologies. As the J2EE technology has matured, J2EE-specific patterns have been discovered that should make your life as a J2EE designer and developer easier.

Today, you will

• Explore how the use of patterns can improve the design of systems

• Examine some of the J2EE-specific patterns currently documented

• Discover some of the J2EE patterns that are applied in the case study

• See how other J2EE patterns can be used to improve the design of the case study

Today's intention is to examine the role of J2EE-based patterns and see how such patterns can be applied in the context of the case study.