We Asked AI to Map Five Old Software Systems. Here Is What Architects Should Learn.
A plain-language guide to AI-assisted domain-driven design: The challenges, what we found, and seven takeaways. Cover image Most big companies run on old software. It still works. It still makes money. But few people know everything it does. AI can now read code fast. So a tempting idea is spreading: "Let AI read the old system and rewrite it." We wanted to test the first half of that idea. Can AI read an old system and explain the business inside it? And can we trust what it says? To find out, we ran an open-source AI tool on five public codebases. This article shares what we learned, in plain words and pictures. A few words first Domain-Driven Design (DDD) is a way to build software around how the business works. The "domain" is the business area, such as billing, shipping, or claims. A bounded context is one part of the business with its own words and rules. Inside it, each word has one clear meaning. "Order" in the kitchen can mean someth...