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Bounded Contexts and Context Map

This document defines the bounded contexts and their relationships for the Employment Services SaaS domain. It is written for architects and engineers designing the domain boundaries and service architecture.

Bounded contexts define clear domain boundaries, ensuring each context has a single responsibility and well-defined integration points. This document maps the Employment Services domain into bounded contexts and shows how they interact.

Important

Each bounded context becomes a microservice generated by the Factory. Clear boundaries ensure maintainability, scalability, and independent evolution of services.

Bounded Contexts Overview

Context Name Responsibility Key Capabilities
Tenant Management Tenants, subscriptions, editions Tenant onboarding, subscription management, edition features, tenant settings
Customer Accounts Customer organizations, contacts Customer organization management, contact management, customer profiles
Project & Engagement Projects, engagements, milestones, contracts Project creation, engagement management, milestone tracking, contract terms
Squad & Staffing Squad definitions, roles, capacity Squad composition, role definitions, capacity management, squad assignments
Work Management Epics, stories, task tracking Epic management, user story tracking, task assignment, sprint planning
Billing & Invoicing Pricing, invoices, payments Pricing models, invoice generation, payment processing, billing reports
Reporting & Analytics KPIs, dashboards, metrics Dashboard generation, KPI calculation, report generation, analytics

Context Descriptions

Tenant Management

Purpose: Manages multi-tenant SaaS infrastructure: tenant creation, subscription management, edition features, and tenant-level configuration.

Key Aggregates: - Tenant - Tenant organization with subscription and edition - TenantEditionAssignment - Edition features assigned to tenant - TenantSettings - Tenant-level configuration

Integration Emphasis: - Provides tenant context to all other contexts - Integrates with Config Platform for tenant settings - Integrates with Identity Platform for tenant isolation

Customer Accounts

Purpose: Manages customer organizations and their contacts within a tenant. Handles customer profiles, contact management, and organizational structure.

Key Aggregates: - CustomerOrganization - Customer organization within tenant - Contact - Individual contacts within customer organization - CustomerProfile - Customer profile and preferences

Integration Emphasis: - Depends on Tenant Management for tenant context - Used by Project & Engagement for project ownership - Used by Billing for billing relationships

Project & Engagement

Purpose: Core domain for managing projects and engagements. Handles project lifecycle, engagement contracts, milestones, and deliverables.

Key Aggregates: - Project - Project definition and metadata - Engagement - Contract between customer and squad - Milestone - Project milestones and deliverables - ContractTerms - Engagement terms and conditions

Integration Emphasis: - Depends on Customer Accounts for project ownership - Depends on Squad & Staffing for squad assignments - Emits events consumed by Work Management and Billing

Squad & Staffing

Purpose: Manages squad definitions, compositions, capacity, and assignments to engagements.

Key Aggregates: - Squad - Squad definition with composition and capacity - SquadMember - Individual squad member with role - Assignment - Assignment of squad to engagement - CapacitySlot - Available capacity slots

Integration Emphasis: - Used by Project & Engagement for squad assignments - Emits events for capacity changes - Integrates with Factory for squad execution

Work Management

Purpose: Manages work items: epics, user stories, tasks, and sprints. Tracks work progress and completion.

Key Aggregates: - Epic - High-level feature or capability - UserStory - User story with acceptance criteria - Task - Individual task or work item - Sprint - Sprint definition and tracking

Integration Emphasis: - Depends on Project & Engagement for project context - Consumes engagement events - Emits work completion events for billing

Billing & Invoicing

Purpose: Manages pricing models, invoice generation, payment processing, and billing reports.

Key Aggregates: - PricePlan - Pricing plan definition - Invoice - Invoice with line items - Payment - Payment record and status - BillingCycle - Billing cycle and period

Integration Emphasis: - Consumes events from Project & Engagement and Work Management - Integrates with external payment processors - Emits billing events for reporting

Reporting & Analytics

Purpose: Aggregates data from other contexts to provide dashboards, KPIs, and analytics.

Key Aggregates: - Dashboard - Dashboard definition and configuration - KPI - Key performance indicator definition - Report - Report definition and generation - Metric - Calculated metric values

Integration Emphasis: - Consumes events from all contexts - Queries Audit Platform for audit data - Provides analytics APIs for dashboards

Context Map (Relationships)

flowchart TD
    TM[Tenant Management] --> CA[Customer Accounts]
    TM --> PE[Project & Engagement]
    TM --> SS[Squad & Staffing]
    CA --> PE
    PE --> SS
    PE --> WM[Work Management]
    PE --> BI[Billing & Invoicing]
    SS --> PE
    WM --> BI
    BI --> RA[Reporting & Analytics]
    WM --> RA
    PE --> RA

    style TM fill:#e1f5ff
    style CA fill:#fff4e1
    style PE fill:#e8f5e9
    style SS fill:#f3e5f5
    style WM fill:#fff4e1
    style BI fill:#e8f5e9
    style RA fill:#f3e5f5
Hold "Alt" / "Option" to enable pan & zoom

Relationship Types

Upstream/Downstream: - Tenant Management → Upstream (provides tenant context to all) - Customer Accounts → Downstream from Tenant Management - Project & Engagement → Downstream from Tenant Management and Customer Accounts - Squad & Staffing → Downstream from Tenant Management - Work Management → Downstream from Project & Engagement - Billing & Invoicing → Downstream from Project & Engagement and Work Management - Reporting & Analytics → Downstream from all contexts

Integration Patterns: - Events - Most contexts communicate via events - APIs - Direct API calls for synchronous operations - Shared Data - Tenant context shared across all contexts

See: Event-Driven Mindset for event patterns.

Mapping to Factory-Generated Services

Service Mapping:

Bounded Context Microservice Name Template
Tenant Management TenantManagement.Service Microservice Template
Customer Accounts CustomerAccounts.Service Microservice Template
Project & Engagement ProjectEngagement.Service Microservice Template
Squad & Staffing SquadStaffing.Service Microservice Template
Work Management WorkManagement.Service Microservice Template
Billing & Invoicing BillingInvoicing.Service Microservice Template
Reporting & Analytics ReportingAnalytics.Service Microservice Template

MVP: Combined Services (Alternative)

For MVP, consider combining:

  • Tenant Management + Customer Accounts → TenantService
  • Project & Engagement + Work Management → ProjectService
  • Squad & Staffing → SquadService
  • Billing & Invoicing → BillingService
  • Reporting & Analytics → AnalyticsService

Rationale: - Faster initial delivery - Fewer services to manage - Can split later as needed

See: Microservice Template for template details.

See: Getting Started with Factory for Factory usage.