About the Book
Build Better Business Software by Telling and Visualizing Stories
"From a story to working software--this book helps you to get to the essence of what to build. Highly recommended!"
--Oliver Drotbohm Storytelling is at the heart of human communication--why not use it to overcome costly misunderstandings when designing software? By telling and visualizing stories, domain experts and team members make business processes and domain knowledge tangible. Domain Storytelling enables everyone to understand the relevant people, activities, and work items. With this guide, the method's inventors explain how domain experts and teams can work together to capture insights with simple pictographs, show their work, solicit feedback, and get everyone on the same page.
Stefan Hofer and Henning Schwentner introduce the method's easy pictographic language, scenario-based modeling techniques, workshop format, and relationship to other modeling methods. Using step-by-step case studies, they guide you through solving many common problems:
Fully align all project participants and stakeholders, both technical and business-focused
Master a simple set of symbols and rules for modeling any process or workflow
Use workshop-based collaborative modeling to find better solutions faster
Draw clear boundaries to organize your domain, software, and teams
Transform domain knowledge into requirements, embedded naturally into an agile process
Move your models from diagrams and sticky notes to code
Gain better visibility into your IT landscape so you can consolidate or optimize it
This guide is for everyone who wants more effective software--from developers, architects, and team leads to the domain experts, product owners, and executives who rely on it every day.
Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.
Table of Contents:
List of Domain Stories xv
Series Editor Foreword xvii
Foreword xxi
Preface xxiii
Acknowledgments xxxi
About the Authors xxxiii
Part I: Domain Storytelling Explained 1
Chapter 1: Introduction 3
What Is Domain Storytelling? 3
Your First Domain Story 5
Chapter 2: The Pictographic Language 15
Actors 16
Work Objects 16
Activities 18
Sequence Numbers 18
Annotations 19
Modeling Canvas 20
Groups 22
Colors 24
No Conditionals 25
Putting It All Together 26
A Grammar for Domain Stories 27
Good Language Style 31
Chapter 3: Scenario-Based Modeling 37
What Are Scenarios? 37
Scenarios in Domain Storytelling 39
Concrete Examples as Scenarios 43
Keeping an Overview 43
Chapter 4: Scope 45
Granularity 45
Point in Time (As-Is vs. To-Be) 48
Domain Purity (Pure vs. Digitalized) 49
Combining the Scope Factors: A Typical Journey 51
Chapter 5: Modeling Tools 55
Modeling on Paper or Boards 55
Modeling with Software Tools 60
Choosing a Tool 63
Chapter 6: The Workshop Format 67
Before the Workshop 68
The Workshop 72
After the Workshop 79
To-Be Workshops 80
Remote Workshops 82
The Moderator 83
The Modeler as Separate Role 85
Moderated Mode vs. Co-Op Mode 85
Chapter 7: Relationship to Other Modeling Methods 87
Domain-Driven Design 87
EventStorming 89
User Story Mapping 91
Example Mapping 93
Storystorming 95
Use Cases 98
UML 99
BPMN 100
Summary 101
Part II: Using and Adapting Domain Storytelling for Different Purposes 103
Chapter 8: Case Study--Alphorn Auto Leasing Inc. 105
Explore Alphorn--The Domain as a Whole 106
Drill Down into Risk Assessment--Understanding an Important Subdomain 108
Clear Up Risk Assessment--Avoid Technical Jargon 109
Optimize Risk Assessment--The To-Be Process 111
Introduce New Software--Combine Business Processes with IT Support 111
Summary 112
Chapter 9: Learning Domain Language 115
Speaking and Listening to Understand Each Other 117
Organizations Speak Many Domain Languages 122
Using Natural Languages 124
Lost in Translation 126
What to Read Next? 126
Chapter 10: Finding Boundaries 129
The Joy of Multiple Models 131
A Heuristic for Finding Subdomains 132
From Subdomains to Bounded Contexts 138
From Context Boundaries to Team Boundaries 141
What to Read Next? 142
Chapter 11: Working with Requirements 145
Software Development as a Series of Conversations 148
From Domain Stories to Requirements 149
Adapt the Recipe 158
Limitations 158
What to Read Next? 159
Chapter 12: Modeling in Code 161
From Domain Stories to Domain Model 163
Implementing the Domain Model 170
What to Read Next? 179
Chapter 13: Supporting Organizational Change 181
Changing People's Workflows 183
Digitalizing Work 188
What to Read Next? 191
Chapter 14: Deciding Make or Buy and Choosing Off-the-Shelf Software 193
Understand the Processes of Off-the-Shelf Solutions 196
What to Read Next? 201
Chapter 15: Finding Shadow IT 203
Not Only Software Developers Develop Software 205
Making Hidden Software Systems Visible 205
What to Read Next? 209
Chapter 16: Conclusion 211
The Future of Domain Storytelling 211
The Essence of Domain Storytelling 212
Appendix: The History of Domain Storytelling 213
Glossary 219
Bibliography 221
Index 229
About the Author :
Stefan Hofer holds a PhD in computer science, and maintains domainstorytelling.org, the home of the Domain Storytelling community. Since 2005, he has worked for WPS-Workplace Solutions, helping teams develop software that does the right job the right way. Henning Schwentner, programmer, coach, and consultant for WPS-Workplace Solutions, helps teams structure existing software and build new systems with more sustainable architectures. He wrote LeasingNinja.io and translated Domain-Driven Design Distilled into German.
Review :
"This book provides a wonderful introduction to an approachable, structured, narrative-based technique for collaborative domain modeling. And for those wanting to go deeper, Stefan and Henning will help you not only to avoid common facilitation pitfalls, but also to integrate the domain knowledge into your everyday development work."
--Paul Rayner, author of The EventStorming Handbook
"This book is destined to be the definitive resource on Domain Storytelling for many years."
--Mike Cohn, co-founder of the Agile Alliance
"Until now, when people talk about visualization, they usually mean 'words in boxes on a whiteboard.' Representing the user's needs and journeys has been somewhat awkward, with either long form descriptions or series of wireframes. What Stefan and Henning have achieved is a method that shows what's really happening. A Domain Storytelling model shows who's doing what with whom, in what order, and for what purpose, in a clear, truly visual way. It's easy enough to learn how to build these models, but more importantly, an uninitiated reader can understand and critique the models at first sight. That makes Domain Storytelling a powerful communication tool that I believe will become widely used in software product companies and beyond."
--Mathias Verraes, curator of Domain-Driven Design Europe
"This is a great addition to any Domain-Driven Design practitioner's bookshelf."
--Julie Lerman, software coach, The Data Farm
"All organizations are being disrupted through the rapid advance of change, and my job is to teach people how to apply the Kanban method in their business life. In that context we use Domain Storytelling while exploring and extracting value streams in organizations in a very successful way. With their book, Stefan Hofer and Henning Schwentner explain how collaboration can and does lead the way to transforming our ways of working."
--Altuğ Bilgin Altıntaş, business agility engineer, accredited Kanban trainer & coach, author of Kanban Metodu ile Çeviklik, co-organizer of FlowConf
"This book is a rare achievement, combining a pragmatic guide to a powerful domain modeling technique and a wealth of distilled insights from key aspects of Domain-Driven Design, without being a tome. The authors present a convincing case that conversational stories told and visualized in a natural language pave the fastest path to quality business software. Be prepared for fingers itching to start your own Domain Storytelling while reading the well-curated case studies."
--Xin Yao, chief software architect at Danske Bank
"Practicing Domain Storytelling is a journey towards deep and true understanding of the problem domain you are working on. While discovering subtle inner workings of the business, be prepared for some unexpected solutions to reveal themselves along the way. This book will put you in a position to embark on that journey on your own and will guide you along the way."
--Mufrid Krilic, DDD and Domain Storytelling practitioner
"Domain Storytelling served as a key bridge between our business, products, and technology stacks, and between our past to our future. Using the practice, everyone who participated—from P&L and Operations team leaders to individual engineers and product leads—levelled-up their understanding of where we intended (and needed) to take the business, aligned with each other, and understood how crossfunctional product and engineering teams would function within the relevant bounded contexts that collectively represented our future business model. And many (even most!) found it a fun and liberating process.
"Domain Storytelling is a practical methodology rooted in the language and context of customers and business, so accessible and valuable to cross-functions (not just engineering) within your business. I recommend the book and, more importantly, the methodology!"
--Jim Banister, chief product officer, Raisin DS GmbH
"As a product manager I really love visualization. Domain Storytelling was one of the techniques I met at the very beginning of my Domain-Driven Design journey (in 2017). I was impressed, amazed, and at the same time surprised in a very positive way that this is exactly what is needed by someone who facilitates the communication between development teams and business. It is very easy to learn and focuses on the pictographic language that makes it possible for literally everyone to understand and take advantage of. I would recommend using it immediately; don't think too much, just start and go with the flow! Believe me it will be worth it. :)"
--Zsófia Herendi, product manager
