Workflow Driven DevelopmentOne does not simply build a new web

by Dmitry Demyankov

So what is Workflow Driven Development?

Hint: I made it up

Conway’s Law

organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the

communication structures of these organizations

— M. Conway

Nordnet IT History

Monolith IT structure

Large code base

Unclear ownership

WE MUST DO FEATURES

BUT WE HATES IT!

From waterfall to agile

Pipes - dev teams

Separate product areas

Separate code base

More than skin deep

• Rethink UI/UX • Build a subset of the most important pages • Rewrite and do it right this time!

STAY AGILE

New web, new me

• Workflow perspective • Clear ownership of every single component • Independent dev teams

• Hence, workflow driven development

So what did we come up with?

• Client - Browsers, pure client-side JS • Server - NodeJS, server-side rendering • API - Middleman for our backend services • Pure Backend - Services and databases

How could it be done?

• How do backend devs do it? • Microservices!

• How do frontend devs do it? • SPA monolith • Dynamic runtime - multiple <scripts/> • ESI, other solutions for page composition?

Where we ended up

• Primary and secondary content • Client-side page composition • Isomorphic and semi-isomorphic JS apps

Primary content

• Page/URL is owned by specific dev team • Isomorphic JS apps • Semi-isomorphic JS apps

Secondary content

• Custom elements + HTML import on the client • client-side page composition • dynamic loading

• Independent delivery

Isomorphic JS

• Invented our own wheel (seed project) • React + Redux + ReactIntl + ReactRouter

• Babel for server-side code • Webpack for client-side code

Isomorphic vs semi-isomorphic

• Send only JS that is needed on the client • e.g. dynamic content

• Different React root elements for server and client • Not exactly progressive enhancement

Summary

• Organisational structure could be affecting your product and architecture choices

• Think about your dev teams and how they should fit in whatever architecture you might enforce on them, the workflow should work for you not not you for it.

• Choose tech stack that supports your UI/UX, development workflow.