Example Mapping
Example Mapping is a collaborative technique that organizes user stories, rules, examples, and questions to clarify requirements and expected behavior.
Collaborative Software Design: How to facilitate domain modeling decisions
Example Mapping is a collaborative technique for organizing rules, examples, and questions to clarify requirements and discover acceptance criteria.
- How it is used
- Clarifies user stories and use cases by discovering acceptance criteria and constraints through structured example-based discussion.
- How deep it goes
- Explains a visual facilitation sequence from user story through rules and examples, without descending into implementation details.
- Examples
- Uses seat reservation outcomes, sticky notes, Miro boards, physical index cards, and group sessions shaped by cognitive bias.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via Miro or physical index cards to expose scenarios, constraints, and acceptance criteria collaboratively.
BDD in Action, Second Edition
Example Mapping is a collaborative BDD technique for exploring rules, examples, and questions about a requirement.
- How it is used
- Uses short collaborative sessions to discover and organize business rules, examples, counterexamples, and questions before implementation.
- How deep it goes
- Explores requirements breadth-first and superficially, deferring detailed examples and Given–When–Then formulation to a later phase.
- Examples
- Uses train-trip scheduling and frequent-flyer points to illustrate rules, examples, counterexamples, and acceptance criteria.
- What you can do after
- Apply it to rapidly enumerate rules and decide whether a User Story is understood enough to begin work or needs further discovery.
Read how BDD in Action, Second Edition explains Example Mapping →
Architecture Modernization: Socio-technical alignment of software, strategy, and structure
Example Mapping is a collaborative technique for exploring rules, examples, and questions in greater detail around a behavior or requirement.
- How it is used
- Uses collaborative mapping to uncover scenarios and edge cases around a behavior or requirement.
- How deep it goes
- Explains a focused workflow from event selection through scenario generation and concept splitting.
- Examples
- Uses order cancellation, warehouse departure, refunds, Order Canceled, and Cancelation Denied as concrete scenarios.
- What you can do after
- Apply it in a collaborative workshop to expose hidden scenarios and decide when concepts need separation.
Related concepts
- business ruleuses · A business rule is a domain-specific policy, condition, or constraint that governs valid data, decisions, actions, or behavior in an organization or its systems.
- user storyuses · A user story is a concise requirement describing a desired software capability, interaction, or outcome from a user’s or stakeholder’s perspective.
- software design EventStormingcontrasts with · Software design EventStorming is a collaborative modeling technique that explores domain events and processes to inform software structure and behavior.
- discovery workshopuses · A collaborative, structured session in which participants explore and refine user needs, problems, domain concepts, or software requirements.
- feature mappingcontrasts with · Feature mapping is a collaborative requirements technique for exploring and organizing a software feature's behavior, flows, variations, and examples.
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