The best way to learn to navigate the complex world, is to dive head first in the chaos.
Modelling is more than information management. It’s complexity management, especially with
today’s ever increasing demands on software. As always with complex problems, a diverse set of
approaches is going to give us a more diverse range of possible solutions.
We’re always modelling, unconsciously, unaware of our process. Even when we do visualise our understanding, we
tend to draw the same things, the same structures, such as boxes and arrows, and because of that, we come up
with the same solutions that have the same inherent biases.
Modelling is a learnable skill. We can learn to look at the problem from different angles.
Heuristics are clever questions that expose the hidden complexity; the little tricks to validate a model before
we build it; the rules of thumb that lead us to iteratively refine our solutions.
In this workshop, we’ll work on a real domain. I'll briefly introduce Event Storming, a hands-on modelling
technique. We’ll use it to visualise our domain, and then use heuristics to gradually improve it. We’ll look at
the heuristics that have proven helpful in my work to model domains with clients in many different industries.
But mostly, you’ll be modelling in teams, and monitoring your own and your team's approaches. You’ll
discover heuristics for yourself.
Target audience:
- Experienced developers, architects, analysts, product owners, and other stakeholders involved in software.
Goals:
- Gain insight in the benefits of diverse modelling methodologies and styles.
- Learn about existing techniques and approaches to explore, analyse, model, and visualise a domain.
- Discover different heuristics to help with modelling.
Prerequisites:
- Prior experience with Domain-Driven Design or modelling is useful but not essential.
- The workshop does not depend on knowledge of programming.
- No laptops are required.
Teaching style:
- Self-discovery; chaotic; “training from the back of the room”
