Domain Storytelling - Facilitator's Guide to Enhance Learning in Your Organization

In order to understand business rules and processes in a complex enterprise environment one must learn the language in which the business operates, i.e. a domain language. This talk will present Domain Storytelling as a lightweight technique that helps teams learn the domain language in a close collaboration with domain experts as well as providing strong hints on subdomains and contexts for implementation to kick off in a right direction.

Join to see how facilitating a Domain Storytelling workshop can enhance learning in your organization as well as push teams towards critical decisions using strategic Domain-Driven Design.

The talk will be based on a real-world use-case from a healthcare domain.

Transcript

1. “Please, draw me a sheep!” “No. This sheep is already very ill. Make me another.”
2. “You have to see it too. This isn’t a sheep. It’s a ram. It has horns.”
3. “This one is too old. I want a sheep who will live a long time.”
4. “That’s a box. The sheep you want is inside.” “That’s exactly how I wanted it!”
6. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Mufrid Krilic Senior Software Architect/Coach DIPS AS, Norway Domain Storytelling Facilitator’s Guide to Enhance Learning in Your Organization Her kan du legge inn bilde. Du finner figurer her: Link
7. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ In order to understand the business, one must learn the language in which the business operates – i.e. a domain language Motivation
8. Takeaways 1. Ability to communicate with domain experts on their terms 2. Engaging way to facilitate a customer workshop 3. Kick-off your development project with hints on context boundaries Ella Fitzegerald – «They Cant’t Take That Away From Me»
9. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Part 1: Ability to communicate with domain experts on their terms
10. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Lightweight method to learn a domain language What is Domain Storytelling?
11. How do you learn any language? ▪ Listen to people who speak the language ▪ Repeat what they had said ▪ Get a confirmation that what you said was correct
12. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ The facilitator asks and guides domain experts to explain the way they work Workshop Technique
13. Listen and Speak the Domain Language ▪ The facilitator builds Domain Stories by visualizing examples from the domain Workshop discussion flows as a series of short examples
14. Domain Experts Confirm The Visual Story ▪ The facilitator checks if everybody in the room agrees Comments and deviations are noted as textual annotations
15. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Picture from www.domainstorytelling.org The Domain Story Syntax - Build Visual Sentences
16. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Focus on what happens in the domain not on what could happen What is a Domain Story
17. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ "You can learn more from a good example than from a bad abstraction.“ – after Peter Hruschka What is a Domain Story
18. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ No branching or parallelism in Domain Stories – We are not building a flow or sequence diagram What is a Domain Story
19. Any rules? ▪ For noticeable differences create another Domain Story ▪ For minor differences make a comment as a textual annotation What if domain experts differ on how the business process is conducted?
20. Any rules? ▪ An actor should not occur more than once in a story Actors in a Domain Story
21. Any rules? ▪ A work object can occur multiple times Work Objects in a Domain Story
22. Any rules? ▪ Label activities in order in which they occur Activities in a Domain Story
23. Any rules? ▪ Avoid technical jargon
24. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Use Case: Group Therapy in a Hospital
25. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ For patients with identical diagnoses sometimes the therapy has the best effect when done in a group of patients Group Therapy in Norwegian Hospitals
26. Group Therapy in Norwegian Hospitals ▪ Mental Health Care ▪ Adult and Pediatric ▪ Somatic Health Care ▪ Training to improve quality of life with long-term diagnoses Business areas in hospitals utilizing group therapy
27. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Group Planning: – Physician decides to start a group treatment for a group of patients – Medical secretary creates a patient group and lays out a schedule Group Therapy in Norwegian Hospitals
28. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Group Check-In: – When patients check-in for an appointment in the group the secretary: •Registers patient attendance •Deals with no-show and cancellations •Informs patients on appointments which they do not need to attend •Follows-up on patient billing and reporting to authorities Group Therapy in Norwegian Hospitals
29. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Domain Story for Group Check-In Built using web-tool wps.de/modeler
30. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Domain Story for Group Check-In
31. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E
32. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E
33. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E
34. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E
35. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E FAQ Alternative methods to learn a domain language
36. Event Storming ▪ Tell the story of the domain by plotting a timeline using domain events ▪ Domain Event: Verb in a past tense for something that domain expert cares about eventstorming.com by Alberto Brandolini
37. Impact Mapping ▪ Focus on ▪ the goal you are trying to achieve, ▪ actors who can help you achieve it ▪ impacts you want to observe on the actors ▪ Rather than ▪ the software you want to deliver impactmapping.org by Gojko Adzic
38. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Event Storming exposes how time influences the business processes – Often ignored yet significant factor Domain Storytelling vs. Event Storming
39. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Domain Storytelling focuses on communication between people and/or software systems Domain Storytelling vs. Event Storming
40. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Event Storming allows for very explorative modelling Domain Storytelling vs. Event Storming
41. Deep Listening ▪ Domain Storytelling provides an environment where everybody gets heard ▪ Every domain expert can tell hers/his story and get it visualized. truly remarkable occurrence
42. Deep Listening ▪ substantially improving the collaboration between the team and domain experts. ▪ If there is something that software developers can get better at it is listening to the business. truly remarkable occurrence
43. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Part 2: Engaging way to facilitate a customer workshop
44. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Combining Different Approaches Event Storming vs. Domain Storytelling vs. Impact Mapping No method lock-in!
45. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Facilitator’s Challenges with Domain Storytelling DISTILLING AS-IS AND TO-BE DOMAIN STORIES AVOID BECOMING A BOTTLENECK SETTING THE STAGE
46. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Avoid becoming a bottleneck trying to visualize a Domain Story learning the domain language keeping track of the essential comments from the other participants
47. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Avoid becoming a bottleneck – Backstage Facilitator “WHITEBOARD” FACILITATOR RUNNING THE SHOW “BACKSTAGE” FACILITATOR DOCUMENTING THE DOMAIN STORIES
48. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Avoid becoming a bottleneck - Event Storming Use Hot-Spots post-it notes as a reminder of a valuable discussion The most chaotic discussions are the most valuable ones
49. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Game Storming suggests combining divergent and convergent methods – divide the participants into groups (divergent) – then presenting the outcome of group discussions to everybody (convergent). Avoid becoming a bottleneck - Game Storming
50. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ What are the overall goals? Setting the stage
51. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ What are we trying to achieve in the workshop? ▪ Start a workshop with Impact Mapping-inspired session ▪ Discover goals, impacts and needs – Groundwork for writing Domain Stories Set the stage with Impact Mapping
52. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Summarize the workshop by running Lean Coffee format based on the insights in Domain Stories – choose the topics for the Lean Coffee session • use textual annotations • use hot-spots Lean Chocolate
53. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Lean Chocolate - a dessert after the main course! Lean Chocolate the Lean Coffee variant run at the end of the workshop
54. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Part 3: Discovering Bounded Contexts
55. Why I Value Domain-Driven Design ▪ DDD is an approach for dealing with complex problems with emphasis on learning the domain – in a close collaboration with domain experts – in order to focus on the most important problems to solve. Eric Evans The «Blue» Book
56. The Two Pillars of DDD ▪ Ubiquitous Language ▪ Bounded Context Vaughn Vernon The «Red» Book
57. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Ubiquitous Language – Develop domain model based on terms from the domain language The Two Pillars of DDD
58. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Bounded Context – tackle complexity by splitting application via inherent subdomain boundaries – Bounded Contexts are boundaries in the software system that aspire to correspond to the subdomains The Two Pillars of DDD
59. The Two Pillars of DDD ▪ Bounded Contexts are defined by the semantics of the Ubiquitous Language! Vaughn Vernon The «Green» Book
60. Bounded Contexts Hints in Domain Stories ▪ Find boundaries that separate models but don't separate people Eric Evans DDD Reference
61. Bounded Contexts Hints in Domain Stories ▪ One-way information flow ▪ Difference in language ▪ Different triggers ▪ Time vs. on-demand Scott Millett and Nick Tune PPP of DDD
62. Bounded Contexts Hints in Domain Stories ▪ Start development based on suggested Bounded Context ▪ Then iterate ▪ New knowledge may lead to new insights ▪ New insights may lead to new Bounded Contexts Scott Wlaschin DDD and Functional Model
63. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Bounded Contexts in our Domain Story
64. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E
65. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Group Therapy in Norwegian Hospitals ▪ Mental Health Care ▪ Adult and Pediatric ▪ Somatic Health Care ▪ Training to improve quality of life with long-term diagnoses Business areas in hospitals utilizing group therapy
66. Service-Oriented Architecture ▪ Service is a technical authority for a given Business Capability – Udi Dahan, «Advanced Distributed System Design» - course Boundaries by Business Capabilities
67. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Group Therapy and Business Capabilities
68. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E Group Therapy and Business Capabilities
69. Discover business capabilities using Pure Domain Stories ▪ Define top-most boundaries as services per business capabilities ▪ Within each service define bounded contexts using linguistic boundaries from the domain language DDD and SOA
70. Takeaways 1. Ability to communicate with domain experts on their terms 2. Engaging way to facilitate a customer workshop 3. Kick-off your development project with hints on context boundaries Ella Fitzegerald – «They Cant’t Take That Away From Me»
71. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ Domain Storytelling book and website – https://leanpub.com/domainstorytelling • Stefan Hofer and Henning Schwentner – www.domainstorytelling.org – https://github.com/hofstef/awesome-domain-storytelling ▪ Community on Slack – #domain-storytelling channel at https://ddd-cqrs-es.slack.com ▪ My blog: https://mufridk.medium.com References and Further Reading
72. E N A B L I N G E F F I C I E N T H E A L T H C A R E ▪ https://thenounproject.com/libraryofcongress/ ▪ Maria Marin from the Noun Project ▪ Language by Gem Designs from the Noun Project ▪ group by Blake Thompson from the Noun Project ▪ Close up shot of hot coffee in glasses lined up ready for coffee tasting by Suzanne Strong from Noun Project ▪ www.domainstorytelling.org Photos and Icons Acknowledgements