Strategic Design Lab

Retrieval Prompts

1. State from memory the three-level split: business domain -> subdomain -> bounded context. Give one rule distinguishing each level from the next.
2. Name the three strategic classes of subdomain (core / supporting / generic) and list one rule for how they differ in staffing and buy-vs-build decisions.
3. Define ubiquitous language in one sentence. State the two requirements for a term to qualify.
4. List four signals that a single bounded context is trying to hold two different models.
5. Explain why reclassifying a subdomain from supporting to core should usually trigger more than one other architectural change.

Compare and Distinguish

Separate these pairs cleanly:

• subdomain vs bounded context -- what does each live in (organization vs model), and who decides each?
• core vs supporting -- what is the buy-vs-build answer for each, and what is the staffing answer?
• core vs generic -- both can be acquired (a team is acquired; a SaaS is acquired). Why are the strategic consequences opposite?
• ubiquitous language vs domain glossary -- a glossary is a document; the language is a… what?
• team-level language vs context-level language -- why does "per team" sometimes give you more than one context?

Common Mistake Check

Identify the error in each:

1. "We have one core subdomain and eight generic ones, so we will outsource everything except the core."
2. "Pricing and Rating are two bounded contexts because we have two services for them."
3. "The business domain is 'logistics'; our subdomain is 'shipping' and our bounded context is 'shipping.'"
4. "We wrote down the ubiquitous language in a Confluence page; that was the language definition step."
5. "Our supporting subdomain uses the same model as our core subdomain because both deal with customers."
6. "Core means important. Everything important is core."
7. "Our startup has three core subdomains and no supporting or generic ones."
8. "Customer means the same thing in every context; we share a Customer class across services."

Mini Application -- Conference Ticketing Co.

You are the new architect at Conference Ticketing Co., an events platform that sells tickets, runs check-in, handles organizer payouts, sends notifications, and provides an analytics dashboard. Produce:

1. Subdomain inventory. List 6-10 subdomains. Classify each as core / supporting / generic, with a 1-sentence justification. Cite at least two heuristics per classification.
2. Candidate bounded contexts. Propose 5-8. For each, write the 1-sentence business capability it owns and a 3-5-word description of its ubiquitous language (e.g., "ticket types, holds, reservations, inventory").
3. Disambiguation. Pick two terms you expect to mean different things in different contexts (e.g., ticket, customer, order). Define each definition in its home context precisely.
4. Staffing sketch. For each core and supporting context, state a team size and seniority mix you would ask for. For each generic, name the vendor / library you would prefer.
5. Risk note. Identify 1-2 places where the strategic design has real downside risk (e.g., "check-in latency becomes a core concern the day we do a 30,000-person event").

Constrain to 3 pages. If you cannot fit, your subdomain list is too long or your justifications are too verbose.

Evidence Check

This page is complete only if, given a new domain, you can:

• draft a subdomain inventory in under 30 minutes
• defend each classification against at least two heuristics
• propose bounded-context candidates whose language differences you can articulate in a sentence
• predict where two contexts will disagree about the meaning of a word
• state a staffing and buy-vs-build position for each subdomain without hedging