Collaborative Modeling

Collaborative modeling is an approach where multiple stakeholders, including experts, practitioners, and end-users, work together to create, refine, and validate models. This cooperative method leverages the diverse perspectives and expertise of the participants to enhance the model's accuracy, relevance, and usability. By involving a wide range of contributors, collaborative modeling fosters a deeper understanding of complex systems and promotes shared ownership of the outcomes.

My services around Collaborative Modeling

  • I provide a full-service package for facilitating collaborative modeling workshops, which includes pre- and post-workshop organization, the actual facilitation, and all necessary materials and equipment. My key workshop offerings include Big Picture EventStorming, Design Level EventStorming, Domain Storytelling, and User Story Mapping. This comprehensive approach ensures that every aspect of the workshop is carefully planned and executed, allowing participants to focus fully on engaging and benefiting from the experience. Whether exploring broad strategic issues or diving into detailed design challenges, my workshops are designed to foster creativity, collaboration, and effective problem-solving among all participants.

  • I offer a specialized program to qualify your team members as facilitators for collaborative modeling workshops. This coaching is most effective when combined with an actual workshop facilitation, allowing trainees to apply their learning in real-time. My core workshops include Big Picture EventStorming, Design Level EventStorming, Domain Storytelling, Wardley Mapping, and User Story Mapping. Through this enablement I equip your future facilitators with all the necessary skills and techniques to independently run their own workshops. They'll learn how to effectively guide discussions, manage group dynamics, and apply strategic modeling tools, ensuring they can lead successful collaborative sessions that drive meaningful outcomes.

  • I offer a comprehensive service focused on the organization-wide rollout and motivation for collaborative modeling. We actively engage with stakeholders at all levels within the organization to address and understand their concerns about collaborative modeling techniques. By delivering tailored presentations, case studies, and discussions, I effectively communicate the value and processes of collaborative modeling to different audiences. The ultimate goal is to inspire collaborative work across organizational silos, ensuring that everyone is motivated and onboard. This approach not only promotes a unified strategy but also enhances cross-functional communication and problem-solving across the company.

  • My offering in agile requirements engineering is deeply rooted in the principles of the Agile Manifesto, particularly the mandate that "Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project." Collaborative Modeling serves as the practical embodiment of this principle, acting as a vital tool in the realms of business analysis and requirements gathering in an agile environment. It is also a key activity for supporting agile transformations. I collaborate closely with your agile coaches, business analysts, and requirements engineers to enhance your current requirements engineering practices, ensuring they are well-suited for agile delivery organizations. This partnership aims to streamline and optimize how requirements are gathered, analyzed, and implemented, promoting a more dynamic and responsive workflow.

My experience

Extensive Experience:

With eight years of hands-on experience, I have mastered various collaborative modeling techniques that are pivotal in navigating complex project requirements.

Innovative Methodology:

I am the inventor of Quality Storming, a novel collaborative modeling method designed to bridge diverse skill sets in the exploration of quality attributes—or non-functional requirements—of software systems. This approach is crafted to address the intricate details that define the backbone of robust software architecture.

Industry Versatility:

My collaborative modeling expertise has been applied across a myriad of industries including banking, insurance, automotive, public sector, human resources, and e-commerce. This diverse exposure allows me to tailor solutions that are industry-specific and highly effective.

Diverse Collaboration:

Through my career, I have engaged with a heterogeneous group of stakeholders—from C-level executives and enterprise architects to software engineers, UX designers, business domain experts, agile coaches, and requirements engineers. This wide-ranging interaction has honed my ability to navigate varied perspectives and foster productive collaborations.

Organizational Transformation:

My strategic guidance has helped numerous organizations establish collaborative modeling as their go-to approach for exploring products, requirements, and features. This transformation fosters a more inclusive and innovative environment, crucial for dynamic and successful product development.

Workshop Facilitation:

I have facilitated over 50 collaborative modeling workshops, honing a participatory and effective approach that ensures all voices are heard and integrated into actionable solutions.

Community Engagement:

As an active member of various collaborative modeling communities, I regularly participate in meetups and unconferences like ComoCamp. I also contributed to the "Visual Collaboration Tools" book, a resource available on Leanpub. This continuous engagement keeps me at the forefront of the latest developments and best practices in the field.

Collaborative Modeling Workshops

  • EventStorming

    EventStorming is an engaging and collaborative workshop format designed to explore complex business domains. Participants from various disciplines map out the entire process or system using sticky notes. This method accelerates knowledge discovery, aligns team perspectives, and identifies strategic and tactical solutions in a lively, interactive setting.

  • Domain Storytelling

    Domain Storytelling is a visual and collaborative modeling technique used to capture and share knowledge about business processes. It involves stakeholders telling stories about how people and systems work together, which are then illustrated using simple symbols and arrows to represent actors, work objects and their interactions. This approach helps teams understand workflows and requirements clearly, ensuring alignment across all parts of an organization.

  • User Story Mapping

    User Story Mapping is a collaborative technique that teams use to organize user stories into a manageable and visually structured format. It helps teams visualize the journey a user takes with a product, identifying different tasks and touchpoints along the way. This mapping ensures a user-centered development process, aiding in prioritizing features and planning releases that deliver value incrementally.

  • Business Model Canvas

    The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management tool that allows companies to develop and sketch out new or existing business models. It uses a visual chart with elements describing a firm's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances, helping organizations align their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs. This approach facilitates a clear overview and easy adjustments to strategies, enhancing adaptability and ensuring a comprehensive understanding of business components.

  • Context Mapping

    Context Mapping is a technique used in Domain Driven Design to visually outline and analyze the relationships and dependencies between different subsystems or bounded contexts within a software system. It helps teams understand how various parts of a system interact, clarifying interfaces and highlighting potential integration issues. This method supports effective collaboration and coherent system design by delineating boundaries and specifying the interactions that must be managed across them.

  • Wardley Mapping

    Wardley Mapping is a strategic planning technique that uses value chain maps to visualize the components of a business and their relationships to each other. It helps organizations understand the landscape in which they operate by identifying the maturity and evolution of these components. This mapping technique aids in anticipating market and technological changes, enabling strategic decision-making and more effective allocation of resources.

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Talks

QualityStorming: Collaborative Modelling for Quality Requirements presented at Software Architecture Gathering 2020

Design Level EventStorming - Presented at INNOQ Technology Lunch 2022