.jpg)
The language of reality: why business event-driven architecture is the next evolution of IT
In IT, we’re constantly searching for the next big thing. But what if the most powerful architectural paradigm isn't new at all, but is simply the most natural way of looking at the world?
For Wim Debreuck, a passionate EDA Architect with decades of experience, this is the core of Business Event-Driven Architecture (BEDA). In our latest Talking Event-Driven podcast, he argued that BEDA is the next logical step in our maturity as an industry, a way of getting closer to reality itself.
Getting closer to reality
"If you would forget everything that we know about our IT domain and start from scratch today," Wim explains, "we would find it very natural that we would just start with business event-driven architecture because that's the normal, natural way of capturing a reality."
A reality is made of events. This podcast started. A user registered. An order was shipped. For decades, we’ve hidden these facts inside complex database tables. To understand what happened, we have to query a table, look at a status field, and perform a kind of reverse engineering to deduce the original event.
BEDA flips this on its head. It urges us to skip the reverse engineering and just express what happened in a simple, semantic, and meaningful way. It’s a move away from asking "What is the current state?" to simply stating "This is what occurred."
The richest benefit: a shared language
When asked about the single biggest benefit of BEDA, Wim’s answer is surprisingly not technical. It's about language.
Each time you define a business event like CustomerNameChanged or ServiceTaskStarted you are adding a new word to a common vocabulary. This is a language that both business stakeholders and engineering teams can understand and use.
- It eliminates ambiguity and reduces the "assumption fuck-ups" that plague complex projects.
- It provides a solid foundation for reasoning. As Wim notes, "The richer that your language is, the more complex reasoning that you're able to do."
This shared language naturally guides the definition of domain boundaries and turns integration from a painful, throwaway task into the creation of a durable, technology-agnostic foundation for the entire enterprise.
How to get started: a pragmatic, bottom-up approach
The biggest challenge in adopting BEDA is that we have been "brainwashed by history" into thinking in terms of state and databases. The shift to event-thinking requires a change in mindset, but it doesn't have to be a painful, top-down revolution.
Wim’s advice is clear and pragmatic:
- Start with a small project: Don't try to define an enterprise-wide policy from day one. Pick a simple project or proof-of-concept.
- Be pragmatic: The EDA manifesto is a guideline, not an unbreakable law. Adapt it to the constraints of your organization. Large, complex landscapes are not an excuse to do nothing.
- Get the right people involved: Use collaborative workshops like Event Storming to bring business and domain experts together. Often, the "aha!" moments in these sessions provide more value than any technical document.
The future is dynamic: introducing platform dynamics
Looking ahead, Wim is excited about the evolution of BEDA into new areas. One of the most powerful is a concept he calls "Platform Dynamics."
While traditional business events are transactional and immutable (ServiceTaskCreated, ServiceTaskFinished), every domain also has its own internal, dynamic behavior. Think of the speed of a car, the current inventory level in a warehouse, or the workload on a service team.
This dynamic is owned by the domain itself. No one else can tell you how fast a car is going, only the car knows. In the "Platform Dynamics" pattern:
- The domain that owns the behavior is responsible for calculating it.
- It publishes this dynamic state (e.g., InventoryLevelChanged) whenever it changes, along with the delta and the reason why.
This is a profound "shift-left" movement. The responsibility for complex state calculation is pushed to the producer, where it belongs. Consumers no longer need to rebuild the state themselves, they can simply subscribe to a clean, high-value metric.
Conclusion: Start now
Business Event-Driven Architecture is not a niche or a sidetrack. It's the maturation of how we model our digital systems to be a truer reflection of our businesses. It demands a new way of thinking, but the rewards, a shared language, clear boundaries, and a resilient, future-proof foundation, are immense.
As Wim concludes, "Start as soon as possible. Start now. There are no arguments to wait. As soon as you start, you will feel the benefits… and some pains, probably. But believe me, the benefits will top the pains."
Ready to start modeling your business reality with the clarity and power of events? We're here to guide you on the journey.
