Collaborative discovery and modeling

As explained in Architecture Modernization: Socio-technical alignment of software, strategy, and structure

Collaborative modeling is a technique in which multiple stakeholders jointly create and refine a representation of a domain or system.

Collaborative discovery and modeling brings people from different roles and teams together to see a larger system, explore shared concerns, and refine decisions collectively. Techniques such as EventStorming can expose opportunities to reprioritize work, improve designs, and find capabilities already built elsewhere. section 16.4.3

Use the technique as an adaptable practice rather than a rigid recipe:

• Start with a group size and setting that facilitators can support confidently; use smaller sessions or experienced help when large gatherings become difficult to design. section 16.4.3
• Repeat EventStorming periodically among related teams so understanding, priorities, and system boundaries can evolve with new discoveries. section 16.4.3
• Let tactical modeling motivate broader collaboration when that path better engages developers; shared language, vertical alignment, and team boundaries can follow. section 17.4

CloudSuite’s bottom-up modernization

CloudSuite began with tactical software design and modeling rather than large-scale EventStorming. Developers’ engagement created a need for a ubiquitous language, which led to collaborative modeling, stronger vertical alignment, and teams organized around subdomains. The organization identified discovery and ordering as two core domains in the e-commerce journey, then tested the boundaries by checking their coupling. section 17.4

Figure 17.4 CloudSuite’s subdomains identified with a bottom-up modernization approach

Use the figure to inspect CloudSuite’s subdomains as an example of boundaries emerging from bottom-up modernization. section 17.4

How Architecture Modernization: Socio-technical alignment of software, strategy, and structure covers it

How deep it goes

Moves from facilitated group exploration to tactical modeling and subdomain boundaries, while avoiding a fixed recipe for domain discovery.

Examples

Includes developer-experience workshops, periodic EventStorming, and CloudSuite’s bottom-up discovery and ordering subdomains.

What it assumes

Assumes participation across roles and facilitation skill; builds from tactical software design toward shared language and organizational alignment.

What you can do after

Apply it via EventStorming and workshops to surface themes, improve designs, reprioritize work, and test domain boundaries.

How it connects

Connects EventStorming with ubiquitous language, domain-driven design, subdomains, team organization, and modernization.

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Also explained in

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  Collaborative Software Design: How to facilitate domain modeling decisionsA collaborative modeling session is a facilitated activity in which participants jointly create or discuss models to reach shared understanding.

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Related concepts

• shared understandingproduces · Shared understanding is a common interpretation among people of relevant information, context, assumptions, expectations, goals, or decisions.
• visualizationkind of · Visualization is the representation of data, information, or concepts in visual form to support inspection, interpretation, analysis, or communication.
• software design EventStormingincludes · Software design EventStorming is a collaborative modeling technique that explores domain events and processes to inform software structure and behavior.
• 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.
• codecontrasts with · Code is instructions or declarations expressed in a programming language that specify computational operations or software behavior.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Architecture Modernization: Socio-technical alignment of software, strategy, and structure. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.