chapter twelve

12 Collaborative modeling beyond software design

This chapter covers

  • Understanding the context through collaborative modeling with managing roles
  • Collaborating with user researchers and product and engineering managers
  • Moving toward implementation through collaborative modeling

We hope you’ve gotten a good understanding of why designing software requires collaborative software design with stakeholders. We also hope this book has been helpful as you take the first steps and understand how to do so. We discussed the different stages you’ll go through during collaborative modeling and what facilitation skills are needed to help the group move past certain blockers. We covered the social dynamics that come into play when bringing a diverse group of people together in a room, especially how to manage conflicts and include everyone when making software design decisions. We also demonstrated how to incorporate insights and onboard people who weren’t present during the collaboration. Additionally, we highlighted the importance of building in feedback loops to keep the decision-making process alive.

12.1 Moving toward understanding the context

12.1.1 Focusing on customer needs

12.1.2 Connecting business strategy, product, and software architecture

12.2 Collaborative modeling beyond software design

12.2.1 Different roles, different modeling needs

12.2.2 Customer journeys and EventStorming: A love story

12.2.3 Aligning capabilities with your strategy

12.3 Moving toward implementation

12.3.1 When to go from collaborative modeling to coding

12.3.2 From collaborative modeling to code

12.4 Collaborative software design catalysts