Question

Would like to know what a programmer should know to become a good at Designing particluarly in Java/J2EE technologies.

Answer 1

Firstly Good Design transcends whichever language you choose to use to implement the design. Good software design is about managing complexity to create easy to understand code which is robust and maintainable. Key points are

1. Work in the highest level of abstraction you can at any time
2. Encapsulate and hide areas of complexity
3. Understand what value there is in clear and consistent naming

In my mind Good design is achieved by a combination of understanding good practice and being creative. And in my experience the hardest part of design is in achieving the right functional decomposition of the problem into smaller sub-problems. It is important to understand that the process of achieving this decomposition is almost always an iterative process rather than a methodical top down process. You have to be prepared to modify or throw away your previous design decomposition until you have something which is maintainable.

It is hard to talk about good design and not to mention two things in particular

1. Object Oriented Proctices
2. Design Patterns

While some languages are object oriented, some are purely object based and others, like C, were created prior to object based design becoming wide spread, the principles and practices can be applied in any language. Most of the code I write is in C and I try to use object like practices where possible.

Design Patterns present good solutions to common problems and give these solutions names. I have found the study of Design Patterns a key to understanding what good design can achieve.