As I have been working as a software developer and software architect in Sweden for the last 20 years I have seen a lot. I am not going to bore you with my historic reflections at all.

That was my first attempt on an introduction for this book. Then I came to realize that most things we have done with MDriven is very much anchored in the historic reflections of things we have experienced in the past. So I guess what I need to say is more like this: Having worked many years as a software architect I have seen a lot of things that change – but also very much that sort of stays the same over time – a stable core.

What is the stable core? The need to store and retrieve the information we are dealing with. The need to somehow display it for users and handle users need to update it according to the rules we want to enforce. This is the technology of any application or system and is what every system developer needs to deliver – using technology modern at the time of implementation. I will refer to this as system modernity.

Furthermore we have the need to understand the business information in the system and how the rules that governs the information’s evolution and consistency protection works. This part I will refer to as the system gist.

On the other hand we all know that in order to make our software sell – to an external market or to in-house users - it must be perceived as modern and cool, but in the software business modern and cool change every year or so, at least on the surface.

So mixing the system gist down into a format that is modern now but that will be obsolete in a couple of years seems like something one should avoid.

It would be better if the system gist somehow could be separated from the currently modern implementation strategy – which we know for sure will be less modern as time goes by.

This book is on how I suggest that we deal with system gist and system modernity.