A domain-specific language for payroll calculations: An experience report from DATEV

Abstract

We review our experience developing a domain-specific language at DATEV, a large payroll service provider. The language enables business programmers to efficiently implement, test, and validate payroll calculations independent of downstream deployment considerations. It is fundamentally functional and addresses core domain challenges such as versioning of calculation rules and data and the processing of temporal data. We evaluate the language regarding reduction of complexity in payroll programs, the impact on quality, its suitability for use by domain experts, as well as the integration into the IT infrastructure. The chapter concludes with general learnings about building business DSLs.