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.

Table of Contents

Part I: Domain Storytelling Explained

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: The Pictographic Language

Chapter 3: Scenario-Based Modeling

Chapter 4: Scope

Chapter 5: Modeling Tools

Chapter 6: The Workshop Format

Chapter 7: Relationship to Other Modeling Methods

Part II: Using and Adapting Domain Storytelling for Different Purposes

Chapter 8: Case Study-Alphorn Auto Leasing Inc

Chapter 9: Learning Domain Language

Chapter 10: Finding Boundaries

Chapter 11: Working with Requirements

Chapter 12: Modeling in Code

Chapter 13: Supporting Organizational Change

Chapter 14: Deciding Make or Buy and Choosing Off-the-Shelf Software

Chapter 15: Finding Shadow IT

Chapter 16: Conclusion

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

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.