state-machine-modeling

Model order lifecycles as strict finite state machines with explicit transition enforcement, idempotency for retried external effects, and concurrency controls to reject unlisted transitions and race-condition duplicates.

A finite state machine for domain modeling is an authoritative lifecycle specification that enumerates mutually exclusive and exhaustive states, allowed transitions with named triggers, guards, side effects, and audit records for business objects like payments, subscriptions, and workflows.

Define allowed and illegal state transitions for a payment workflow by specifying named triggers, actor roles, and guard conditions in a transition table, applying strict default illegality so any unlisted transition is rejected with a domain exception.

Handle stuck records and timeout recovery in job lifecycles by defining explicit timeout and recovery exits for in-progress states, ensuring post-commit side effects and emitted events allow safe retries without leaving records in a blocked terminal state.

Finite state machine modeling works for approval and ticket workflows with external side effects by defining post-commit event emission, idempotency for retried operations, and audit records that track every state change and emitted event.

Avoid finite state machine lifecycle modeling for stateless data objects or simple CRUD operations where business rules and external side effects do not depend on explicit state changes, as the overhead of enumerating allowed transitions and guards provides no value.