From Business Goals to Software Requirements with Impact Mapping and Domain Storytelling

Building software that fulfills business goals is the core task of software development teams. To turn business goals into software, stakeholders must have shared artifacts to align their perspectives and priorities. Those artifacts have many names: requirements, features, user stories, use cases, specifications, etc.

Many DDD practitioners believe that software requirements are best created as a result of a collaborative modeling process. Impact Mapping and Domain Storytelling are collaborative modeling methods that support conversations about requirements. They help approach requirements from two different angles:

- Impact Mapping links business goals to the outcomes a software product creates for its users
- Domain Storytelling visualizes and refines business processes into cohesive and implementable scenarios.

This workshop will show you how to bridge the gap between the business goals and deliverables by:

- Engaging in conversations that connect the WHY of business goals with the WHAT of software design.
- Learning how to turn individual requirements into business processes.
- Practicing Impact Mapping and Domain Storytelling on a case study in small groups

The session will conclude with practical tips on organizing requirements and refining them into implementable domain models.

Transcript

1. From Business Goals to Software Requirements with Impact Mapping and Domain Storytelling DDD Europe 2025 Mufrid Krilic, Coder, Coach, Consultant at CoWork Henning Schwentner, Coder, Coach, Consultant at WPS
3. Given the business goal….
4. From Business Goals to Impacts Workshop Part 1
5. Impact Mapping ▪ “An impact map is a visualization of scope and underlying assumptions, created collaboratively, by (senior) technical and business people” ▪ Gojko Adzic, Impact Mapping, the book impactmapping.org
6. Four questions to ask to facilitate the conversation about business intent! • Business goal Why? • Role/Actor Who? • Impact How? • Deliverable • Experiment What? Software Goes Here Prioritize Here!
7. Software Requirements Prioritization Prioritize on the Impacts!
8. Software Requirements Prioritization Easier to agree on prioritization with stakeholders
9. Software Requirements Prioritization Prioritization aligned with the business intent!
12. Actors Who can contribute to the goal?
13. Actors Who can obstruct us reaching the goal?
14. Actors Whose behavior do we want to impact?
15. Impact Behavior change!
16. Impact Measurable!
17. Break 10 minutes! Helping Build Domain-Driven Product Organizations
18. Wrap-up Where to go from here?
20. Practice! Start on Monday! Somewhere in safe environments then improve!
21. Book by Gojko Adzic impactmapping.org Impact Mapping: Making a big impact with software products and projects
22. Book by Stefan Hofer and Henning Schwentner domainstorytelling.org Collaborative, Visual and Agile Way to Build Domain-Driven Software
23. • “Domain-Driven Design Enthusiast” • CoWork – Consultant and Coach • Tight-Loose-Tight • Product and Technology Leadership Helping Build Domain-Driven Product Organizations
24. Henning Schwentner https://hschwentner.io in/henningschwentner hs@wps.de
26. Images • Vecteezy.com • Tim Hüfner • https://unsplash.com/@joshua_hoehne • https://unsplash.com/@kattyukawa • https://unsplash.com/@brett_jordan