Navigating the Challenges of Implementing a Shared Component Library for the Enterprise by William Ramirez

Motivations Behind an Enterprise-Shared Component Library

Shared component libraries serve a dual purpose, namely:

  • Uniform Branding and User Experience. Shared component libraries are a powerful tool for achieving consistent branding and a cohesive user experience. Users interacting with various applications and finding a familiar interface enhances their intuition in navigating and using the software. This consistent branding fosters trust and streamlines user interactions with different tools and services.

  • Efficient Post-Rebranding Updates. As businesses evolve, they often undergo rebranding and modernization efforts. These libraries enable swift and comprehensive updates to align applications with the new brand identity during these transitions. Without them, updating each application individually would be cumbersome.

Key Elements for Success

To effectively implement an enterprise-shared component library, organizations commonly employ the following key elements:

  • Dedicated Repository. A central hub for the shared component library houses the collection of reusable UI components, ranging from simple components like icons to more complex composite elements like accordions, data grids, and tables.

  • Documentation. Educational material for users to learn the available APIs and a gallery of supported patterns. The documentation serves as user training and a testing bed for the maintainers to monitor the component permutations in various contexts during the development process.

  • Version-Controlled Packaged Library. Applications consuming these components do so via package managers, npm for example. Version control allows users to make easy updates and roll back to more stable versions as needed and prevent the mandatory subscription to every update.

  • Dedicated Team. The success of a shared component library often depends on a specialized team. This team typically includes engineers responsible for component development and maintenance, UX designers to ensure a consistent and functional design, QA testers to assess the components rigorously, and a robust CI/CD pipeline for automated build and deployment processes.

Challenges

While there are benefits of an enterprise-shared component library, as the number of teams using the library and their unique needs grow, it is easy to imagine how challenging it can be for the maintainers to keep all dependent teams happy. The teams that reported the bugs and need the updates typically must wait for scheduled releases to see those changes, not to mention the fact that backlogs grow, and every team may think their ticket should be at the top of the queue.

So, how can these challenges be combatted?

Tools and Strategies

Codebase Integrity and ownership. As the dependent teams grow, one might be tempted to open the gates and have all teams contribute to the common lib. The warning here is that no team will be held accountable if no team owns the codebase. Fixing a bug for one team could create a bug for another. Many components will have various permutations and live inside of many different contexts. Shared libraries should maintain a very high level of code quality and testing rigor to avoid regressions. Having a team that owns and is dedicated to the project should reduce the occurrence of preventable issues.

Governance. Implementing a structured process to manage proposed changes and assess their implications on collaborating teams, followed by appropriate prioritization, can play a critical role in the project's success. Proper planning and deeper collaboration amongst teams can have profound effects on the success of the projects involved.

Patterns and Cookbooks. By carefully defining the supported usage of components within a curated list of patterns and well-documented guidelines, teams gain a deep understanding of the intended usage of the code. This, in turn, enables maintainers to focus on specific contexts while reducing the risk of unexpected use cases by the users. Teams adopting the shared library are more likely to utilize it in a manner that aligns with intended usage, reducing the number of reported issues.

Additional Considerations

Abstractions are common in component libraries to hide away the complexity of their constituents to make development easier and more streamlined. A peculiar situation tends to emerge as more teams require customizations. While the intention initially was to simplify component configurations, as teams' needs diverge and require more feature-rich implementations, teams can find themselves undoing a lot of their work to simplify components and end up exposing more of the native underlying APIs that were initially abstracted. This can create new challenges as more configuration support means more edge cases to test and cover. It is essential to balance the benefits of providing abstraction and feature richness.

Implementing an enterprise-shared component library enhances consistency, branding update efficiency, and user experience. By addressing the challenges of a central dependent system and implementing effective governance and documentation practices while carefully managing abstractions, organizations can unlock the full potential of shared component libraries and achieve a unified and user-friendly digital ecosystem.

 

Mark Hewitt