2 day workshop
Collaborative Software Design: How to facilitate domain modelling decisions
Are communication breakdowns or a gap between business and IT leading to software products that miss the mark? Struggling to get meaningful engagement from stakeholders in your collaborative modelling efforts? This training addresses these challenges head-on by providing you with the practical facilitation skills needed to lead impactful domain modelling sessions. You will learn how to effectively engage diverse stakeholders, create an environment where collective knowledge is unlocked and valued, and guide the group towards making well-informed design choices. By mastering these techniques, you can transform how your software teams collaborate and design software products with stakeholders, ensuring greater alignment, shared understanding, and ultimately, more successful software delivery.
Effective software design hinges on strong collaboration among stakeholders and within development teams. Misunderstandings and conflicts, however, can undermine the creation of sustainable software solutions. Collaboration is not innate but a skill honed through learning and practice. While collaborative modeling tools offer visual aids for clarifying assumptions and enhancing teamwork, skilled facilitation remains paramount. Acquiring these techniques empowers technical leaders to steer effective collaboration with business stakeholders, product experts, and technical contributors.Turning conflicts in oppurunities.
This workshop will guide you toward making sustainable design decisions and strengthening stakeholder collaboration through collaborative modeling. You will gain valuable insights into how social dynamics, such as ranking theory, cognitive biases, conflicts, and resistance, impact design decisions and the resulting software products.
Our core objective is to equip you with the ability to make sustainable design decisions that harness the collective knowledge of the group, ensuring broad support. While this workshop is tailored for technical leaders, anyone involved in software creation can benefit from learning to facilitate collaborative sessions. Even if you do not consider yourself a facilitator, you will discover the power of collaborative modeling in enhancing communication.
Our immersive two-day workshop provides both instruction and practical experience in tackling intricate domain modeling decisions through collaborative modeling. You will leave with a toolkit of strategies, techniques, and resources to foster inclusive decision-making, ultimately leading to the development of sustainable, high-quality software products.
What You Will Learn
Understanding Collaborative Software Design
Explore the critical reasons why involving stakeholders in the software design process is essential for software teams, and the potential negative consequences of not doing so.
Facilitating Collaborative Modelling
Delve into the necessary skills and techniques a facilitator should possess and clarifies who can effectively take on this crucial role.
The Influence of Ranking
Understand how both conscious and unconscious rank within a group impact the decisions made, and learn practical techniques to identify these dynamics.
Observing Behaviour
Learn to understand what constitutes behaviour within a group, why observing it is crucial for effective facilitation, and practical methods to enhance group dynamics through mindful observation.
Active listening skills
Learn and practice various active listening techniques, including Socratic questioning and crucial conversations. Develop the ability to ask insightful questions that promote understanding and genuine collaboration, rather than leading the discussion.
Check-ins/outs and sense-making
Understand and experience the value of structured check-in and check-out activities. Learn practical techniques for sense-making to effectively restore flow and cohesion within the collaborative process when discussions become stalled or fragmented.
Resistance and Conflict Resolution
Develop skills to effectively address conflicts and overcome resistance that can hinder collaborative decision-making processes. Learn practical techniques to navigate disagreements and foster a productive environment for collective problem-solving.
Making Sustainable Design Decisions
Learn how optimal software designs leverage the collective knowledge of a group to collaboratively identify and choose the most effective solutions.
Before the workshop
- Will I be learning about collaborative modeling tools like EventStorming, Domain Storytelling, Wardley Mapping, Business model canvas, Example mapping?
Not directly. However we will use some of the tools based on your experience during the training. So having experience and knowledge of doing collaborative modeling is needed to make the most out of the training. - Will I receive materials to read/watch/study prior to the workshop?
We will provide optional video materials, and you are always welcome to read the book which you will get a discount code for when you take the training!
Audience
This two-day workshop empowers technical leaders to effectively facilitate collaborative domain modeling sessions for making robust software design decisions. It is ideal for:
- Software, Solution, Domain & Enterprise Architects
- Tech leads, Staff+ engineers, and Senior software engineers
- Product Managers & Owners
Business Analysts & Quality assurance professionals - Engineering managers & Scrum Masters
- Anyone looking to enhance their software design process through improved facilitation skills.