Building Software with a Plugin Architecture

We've been building Java applications the same way for the greater part of a decade. But these monolithic applications have shortcomings that prevent us from increasing development agility and architectural flexibility. In this session, we'll build a simple system with a plugin and demonstrate it's advantages across the full software development lifecycle.

Are you familar with the Open Closed Principle (OCP) that states “software should be open for extension but closed to modification.” If so, then you know that OCP is a class design principle. But what happens when we extend the definition of OCP and start applying the idea at an architectural level? The answer is that we realize a positive impact on development team structure, software builds, and runtime flexibility. In this session, we'll build a simple system with a plugin architecture and demonstrate how OCP applied at an architectural level opens a new world of possibilities.

About Kirk Knoernschild

Kirk is software developer with a passion for building great software. He takes a keen interest in design, architecture, application development platforms, agile development, and the IT industry in general, especially as it relates to software development. His recent book, Java Application Architecture was published in 2012, and presents 18 patterns that help you design modular software.

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