Jef Claes

Codeslinger

Recorded at Domain-Driven Design 2016, January 26-29, Brussels

Bio

Jef Claes is a professional codeslinger, a highly functioning domain linguist and number cruncher, ships software daily, writes on jefclaes.be weekly and speaks in public occasionally. When it comes to buzzwords he often associates himself with DDD(BE), CQRS, C#, FP and F#.

Talk: Evil by Design

In this talk, I'll share what my experience has been working in the gambling business, how moving to events helped us gain a better understanding of the domain and which techniques and models casinos have perfected over the years to keep people playing.

Last year I ventured into the domain of (online) gambling. Given that the industry has been around since forever, I expected most problems to be of the technical kind. As it turned out, the struggle with technology was only part of a bigger problem; to move forward we needed to fully grasp the industry and its consumers.

Events started out as a way to dismantle a legacy system, but quickly proved to be an effective tool to gain a deeper understanding of our domain. Visualizing event streams, we discovered patterns that helped us identify what drives different types of users.

Having a better understanding of what customers are looking for, we dove into existing literature to learn which techniques and models casinos use to cater for each type of user. We learned how to program chance while staying true to the Random Number God. Even when variance is brutal, casinos have enough data and tools to steer clear from the pain barrier.

All of this entails interesting problems and software, but isn't my code damaging society? Or is gambling just another human trait?

Hands-on: Jef & Tom's Awesome Modellathon

Tom Janssens & Jef Claes

The Model v2.0 alpha
(Inspired by Kraftwerk - The Model)

I love to model and it's looking good
I'll turn it into code that is well understood
It might be hard to get, is wrong from time to time
It takes a new design approach to change your mind

Modellathon today, bring out the modelling brain
Check out other models and then analyze again
Look at other groups and steal from what they share
And finally emerges a modelling bouquet

It might become a challenge every now and then
But think and be creative, give the best you can
At the end of this session you will hopefully see
That modelling is fun, so drop by with Jef & me