First, I want to set the scene with a detailed description from the Event Storming website:
EventStorming is a flexible workshop format for collaborative exploration of complex business domains.
It comes in different flavours, that can be used in different scenarios:
- to assess health of an existing line of business and to discover the most effective areas for improvements;
- to explore the viability of a new startup business model;
- to envision new services, that maximise positive outcomes to every party involved;
- to design clean and maintainable Event-Driven software, to support rapidly evolving businesses.
The adaptive nature of EventStorming allows sophisticated cross-discipline conversation between stakeholders with different backgrounds, delivering a new type of collaboration beyond silo and specialisation boundaries.
The key point for Event Storming is to help find out what’s supposed to happen in software. This sounds simple. However, a design requirement if not properly defined from as many angles as possible can easily be misinterpreted. Important details get taken for granted and lost in translation.
When you slow down and look at a software design from as many angles as possible, a clear picture emerges. One that you can reach collaboratively.
What comes after Event Storming?
I imagine from here you could do things like API Design First Methodology and Design Thinking to move from Event Storming to the design phase, and finally to production. You get a much clearer picture using this technique before the others.
More about it
At first glance Event Storming looks simplistic, less detailed than the Design Thinking process. On the contrary, Event Storming is a valuable tool to bring varied disciplines together to create a very clear, high level picture of a technical design challenge.
Designers, developers, product owners and management can collaborate and fill in the blanks. The result is a clearer picture of current state and openings for further discussion and innovation.
Do you want to improve your existing systems or innovate new ones? Event Storming is a great way to do it, bring top level domains together at a very high level to think through business problems. Perfect for business models and innovation.
Key components such as Events and Aggregates (Business Objects) are grouped together and then organised by bounded context so the workshop attendees can see clearly.
Similarities to other methodologies
I can see a lot of similarities with Design Thinking and OOUX (Object Oriented UX), with an even simpler approach and with more focus on the flow of the application and its potential pitfalls and opportunities.
I’m looking forward to giving Event Storming workshop technique a try, and soon!
