Collaboration style

As explained in Collaborative Software Design: How to facilitate domain modeling decisions

A collaboration style is a structured format for organizing how participants work together during a collaborative session.

A collaboration style is an enabling constraint that structures how participants work together during collaborative modeling. It helps groups generate options, share diverse knowledge, manage bias and disagreement, maintain inclusion, and make sustainable decisions. The facilitator selects and blends styles according to the group, goal, stage, and emerging social dynamics. section 1.3.1 section 4.5

Useful styles include:

• Together, Alone: participants first create individual contributions, then merge them into a shared model. section 4.5.10
• Split and Merge: participants work in separate groups before combining models and comparing tradeoffs. section 4.5.10
• Small Group Diverge, Converse, Liberating Structures 1-2-4-All, Ensemble, Fish Bowl, Anarchy!, Guerilla, and The Secret Modeler offer further ways to vary participation. section 1.3.1

A Big Picture EventStorming flow

Use Together, Alone for chaotic exploration, Split and Merge when enforcing the timeline, and Ensemble for the walkthrough. Treat this sequence as a guideline: observe the group, agree on constraints such as when to split, and change style when the current pattern stops producing insight. section 5.4.5 section 4.5.10

Figure 1.5 A visual representation of a collaborative modeling session

Use the session diagram to orient the facilitator, participants, and collaborative modeling activity around a shared visual frame. section 1.3.1

How Collaborative Software Design: How to facilitate domain modeling decisions covers it

How deep it goes

Explains the rationale, selection heuristics, and staged examples, but defers detailed treatment of individual styles.

Examples

Uses Together, Alone, Split and Merge, Small Group Diverge, Converse, and staged Big Picture EventStorming sequences.

What it assumes

Assumes preparation, facilitator observation, and basic familiarity with collaborative modeling sessions and their tools.

What you can do after

Practice/perform collaborative modeling by selecting, combining, and changing styles in response to group needs and session stages.

How it connects

Connects collaborative modeling with EventStorming, Example Mapping, facilitation, sensemaking, enabling constraints, and group decision-making.

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Related concepts

• together, aloneincludes · Together, Alone is a collaboration format in which participants work independently on the same task before comparing their results, combining individual and group work.
• split and mergeincludes · Split and merge is a named collaboration format in which participants work separately and then combine their results.
• facilitatorused by · A facilitator is a person who guides and coordinates a group activity or discussion, supports progress toward shared objectives, and helps capture its outcomes.
• metaheuristicconfigured by · A metaheuristic is a high-level strategy that guides or coordinates heuristic search for good solutions to optimization problems without guaranteeing an optimal result.
• working agreementconfigured by · A working agreement is a collectively accepted norm that defines how participants will behave and interact during a group activity.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Collaborative Software Design: How to facilitate domain modeling decisions. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.