Building Reusable Libraries

For many years, I've worked in product teams where we don't just deliver product features but also build shared services and libraries for other development teams. So the question how to create a good reusable library is really important to me.

That’s why the recent Thoughtworks publication, “Decoupled by design: Building reusable enterprise libraries and services”, caught my attention.

The authors defines the following success factors to build shared libraries:
🔸 Build with at least one customer in mind. Be sure that at least one team is ready to use your library. Use them as early adopters to collect real feedback.
🔸 Set a product vision. Your library or service should solve a specific problem. Know exactly what it is and stay focused on it.
🔸 Make it easy to use. Adoption depends on simplicity. Good documentation, self-service access, clear migration paths — all these help teams use your library.
🔸 Design for extensibility. Follow the open-closed principle — open for extension but closed for modification. This ensures teams can extend the library to meet their specific needs.
🔸 Encourage contributions.  Use open-source model: allow internal teams to contribute to common libraries, services and platforms.
🔸 Continuous improvements. Maintain multiple versions, set versioning strategy (like semver), define clear deprecation policies, stay aligned with industry's tech standards.
🔸 CI/CD. Use functional and cross functional tests to ensure stability and quality for the delivered artifacts.


While the article doesn’t reveal anything really new, it contains good principles to keep in mind during implementation. When done right, shared libraries and services can significantly reduce development costs and time to market for new features and capabilities.

#engineering #architecture