Design Patterns are an important topic when speaking about software development. Developers are often faced with similar and recurring problems. These problems can be complex and unpredictable, so developers invented Design Patterns to help solve them. Design patterns are proven solutions for a specific set of problems.
Think of a design pattern as a recipe. Note the word “recipe”. Design patterns are not code. Instead, they represent the idea of how to solve a problem and provide a guideline. This means they are abstract and provide general solutions. It is the developer’s job to apply the design pattern to their particular problem. Because design patterns are abstract concepts, developers can leverage them in different situations that are similar, but not identical. The developer will then transform the abstract design pattern into specific code that solves a problem.
The biggest advantages of using design patterns are:
- They are battle tested: Design patterns are usually developed by experienced developers who have faced the recurring problems many times during their career. Because of that, they have the motivation to create a general solution for these problems. They have the expertise to develop a solution that is reliable. Finally, the solutions are extensively tested to assure their validity.
- They can be reused: Leveraging existing design patterns can save a lot of time. Developers do not have to reinvent the wheel every time they face a similar, recurring problem. Furthermore, it is not necessary to be an expert in the problem domain, because you do not have to come up with your own solution from scratch. Even less experienced developers can develop stable, reliable solutions, by leveraging the power of existing design patterns.
Because design patterns are abstract concepts, developers can leverage them in different situations that are similar, but not identical. The developer will then transform the abstract design pattern into specific code that solves a problem.
But to benefit from these advantages, it is necessary to know about them in the first place.
In the Microsoft Dynamics NAV world this is even more important. Software development in the context of Microsoft Dynamics NAV often differs from software development in other domains. This is due to NAV being specifically tailored to solve problems in a certain domain, namely the problems of businesses. This is why the data managed by NAV is complex and highly correlated.
In the world of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, developers often have to come up with their own design patterns. Here at Fenwick, the quality of the solutions we develop is our top priority, so that our customers can focus on their daily business and not have to worry about their software systems.
This is why it is important for us to be aware of the design patterns that are available in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. When facing complex problems, we investigate how similar problems have been solved in the past. If we find ourselves facing the same problems over and over again, without an available reusable design pattern, we produce our own design patterns to provide a general solution using our expertise in the problem domain.
By using design patterns Fenwick provides stable and reliable solutions quickly and efficiently.
