Domain Storytelling

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Domain Storytelling

Collaborative Modeling for Agile and Domain-Driven Design

About the Book

Update: Domain Storytelling is now published by Addison-Wesley and available in print and as e-book.

Domain Storytelling means that we let domain experts tell us stories about their tasks. While listening, we record the stories using a pictographic language. The domain experts can see immediately whether we understand their story correctly. After very few stories, we are able to talk about the people, tasks, tools, work objects, and events in that domain.

This book is an in-depth guide on how to use Domain Storytelling. It provides the means to use and adapt Domain Storytelling for different purposes, for example:

  • Crunch domain knowledge: Use Domain Storytelling to bring together domain experts from different departments, cross department boundaries and challenge assumptions. Work your way down from big-picture overviews to in-depth domain analysis.
  • Find good boundaries for your software: Domain Stories help to break down a domain into manageable slices. These are useful for splitting a monolith into modules, for designing microservices, and finding context boundaries in Domain-driven Design.
  • Domain Stories help you to determine which classes and methods you need to express your domain knowledge in code.
  • Derive requirements from Domain Stories to bridge the gap between domain knowledge and software development.
  • Support organizational change by making transparent how a new software system will change the way how people work.
  • Share this book

  • Categories

    • Business Analysis
    • Business and IT Alignment
    • Software Engineering
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About the Authors

Stefan Hofer
Stefan Hofer

Stefan is bad at drawing. However, he thinks he can build up domain knowledge by drawing Domain Stories. Stefan studied Software Engineering in Austria and has a PhD in computer science. Since 2005, he has been working for WPS – Workplace Solutions Ltd. in Hamburg. His job there is to help teams develop software that does the right job the right way.

Henning Schwentner
Henning Schwentner

Henning loves programming in high quality. He lives this passion as coder, coach, and consultant at WPS – Workplace Solutions in Hamburg, Germany. There he helps teams to structure their monoliths or to build new systems from the beginning with a sustainable architecture. Microservices or self-contained systems are often the result. Domain-driven Design as well as Domain Storytelling and other collaborative modelling methods help here. Henning is author of “Domain Storytelling – A Collaborative Modelling Method” and translator of “Domain-Driven Design kompakt”.

Table of Contents

  •  
    • A Note to our Readers
    • How to Read This Book
      • Limitations
      • The Other Book
    • Acknowledgement
      • The Book
      • The Approach
      • The Cover
  • Part One: Domain Storytelling Explained
    • Chapter 1: Introduction
      • What is Domain Storytelling?
      • Your First Domain Story
    • Chapter 2: The Pictographic Language
      • Actors
      • Work Objects
      • Activities
      • Annotations
      • Modeling Canvas
      • Groups
      • Colors
      • No Conditionals
      • Putting it all Together
      • Good Language Style
    • Chapter 3: Scenario-based Modeling
      • What are Scenarios?
      • Scenarios in Domain Storytelling
      • Concrete Examples as Scenarios
      • Keeping an Overview
    • Chapter 4: Scope
      • Granularity
      • Point in Time (As-Is vs. To-Be)
      • Domain Purity (Pure vs. Digitalized)
      • Combining the Scope Factors: A Typical Journey
    • Chapter 5: Modeling Tools
      • Modeling on Paper or Boards
      • Modeling with Software Tools
      • Choosing a Tool
    • Chapter 6: The Workshop Format
      • Before the Workshop
      • The Workshop
      • After the Workshop
      • To-Be Workshops
      • Remote Workshops
      • The Moderator
      • The Modeler as Separate Role
    • Chapter 7: Relationship to Other Modeling Methods
      • Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
      • EventStorming
      • User Story Mapping
      • Example Mapping
      • Storystorming
      • Use Cases
      • UML
      • BPMN
  • Part Two: Using and adapting Domain Storytelling for different purposes
    • Chapter 8: Case Study – Alphorn Car Leasing Inc.
      • Explore Alphorn – The Domain as a Whole
      • Drill Down into Risk Assessment – Understanding an Important Sub-Domain
      • Clear Up Risk Assessment – Avoid Technical Jargon
      • Optimize Risk Assessment – The To-Be Process
      • Introduce New Software – Combine Business Processes with IT-Support
    • Chapter 9: Learn Domain Language
      • Speaking and Listening to Understand Each Other
      • Organizations Speak Many Domain Languages
      • Natural Language
      • The Role of “Translators”
      • What Is Next? Where to Go From Here?
    • Chapter 10: Finding Boundaries
      • The Joy of Multiple Models
      • A Heuristic for Finding Sub-Domains
      • From Sub-Domains to Bounded Contexts
      • From Context Boundaries to Team Boundaries
      • What Is Next? Where to Go From Here?
    • Chapter 11: Modeling in Code
      • From Domain Stories to Domain Model
      • Implementing the Domain Model
      • What Is Next? Where to Go From Here?
    • Chapter 12: Working with Requirements
      • Software Development as a Series of Conversations
      • From Domain Stories to Requirements
      • Adapt the Recipe
      • Limitations
      • What Is Next? Where to Go From Here?
    • Chapter 13: Support Organizational Change
      • Changing People’s Workflows
      • Digitalizing Work
      • What Is Next? Where to Go From Here?
    • Chapter 14: Deciding Make or Buy and Choosing Off-The-Shelf Software
      • Understand Processes of Off-The-Shelf-Systems
      • What Is Next? Where to Go From Here?
    • Chapter 15: Finding Shadow IT
      • Not only Software Developers Develop Software
      • Making Hidden Software Systems Visible
      • What Is Next? Where to Go From Here?
  • Appendix
    • Appendix A: The History of Domain Storytelling
    • Bibliography
  • Notes

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