2 What is collaborative modeling?

In this chapter, we delve into the essence of collaborative modeling and its pivotal role in software development. Understanding the business problems is essential for software development teams, but that’s just the beginning. We advocate that software development teams actively engage in the design process and make collaborative design decisions because their technical expertise significantly enhances the software’s capability to address user and business needs. In addition, the user journey and business process should be jointly optimized to get the most value out of building that software. That is the true potential of collaborative modeling.

For those unfamiliar with collaborative modeling, we’ll introduce some of our favorite tools, offering a glimpse into their practical application. Even if you’re a seasoned collaborative modeler, we’ll provide insights on the different tools and when we use one over the other. We end the chapter with the characteristics that make a tool fit for collaborative modeling in software design, what makes a tool less effective for collaborative modeling, and what the difference is between diagramming and collaborative modeling.

2.1 Understanding the business problems

2.1.1 What problems are we trying to solve?

2.1.2 What is collaborative modeling?

2.1.3 Exploring business problems using collaborative modeling

2.2 Domain-Driven Design and collaborative modeling

2.2.1 What is Domain-Driven Design?

2.2.2 Who are the stakeholders?

2.2.3 Why DDD and collaborative modeling go hand in hand

2.3 Different collaborative modeling tools

2.3.1 Collaborative modeling in the problem and solution space

2.3.2 EventStorming

2.3.3 Example Mapping

2.3.4 Domain Storytelling

2.3.5 When to use what tool

2.4 Collaborative software design catalysts

2.5 Further reading

Summary