EventStorming

In an EventStorming, knowledge holders from different disciplines and with different perspectives come together – e.g. business, IT, information security. In a guided, facilitated process, the group collaboratively builds a shared, cross-team understanding of workflows and facts. From the many individual perspectives, a shared picture emerges that no one held alone before.

Transformation projects in particular benefit strongly from EventStorming: over long periods of time, a lot of knowledge has built up, but it's often concentrated in individual people's heads – not everyone involved in the implementation can or needs to build up that same depth of knowledge. EventStorming makes the key terms and relationships visible and creates a shared language and a shared understanding across team and role boundaries.

EventStorming workshops can be scaled in depth. A Big Picture EventStorming is a compact starting point that first maps the subject matter from a bird's-eye view – depending on the goal, with a focus on core workflows, or already including details such as processed information, triggers, rules and actors. Even at this level, problem areas can be identified and flagged for later clarification. Building on this, further sessions can follow, sometimes with a different group of participants, to identify suitable boundaries (Process Level) and work out the software design (Software Design EventStorming).

The real outcome isn't the many sticky notes on the wall, but the shared understanding of the domain and of potentially problematic areas that need further attention. This breaks down communication barriers and reduces knowledge silos. The benefit is lasting and often continues to have an effect long after the session, e.g. through improved communication across organisational boundaries. We prepare a summary of every EventStorming workshop that the client can use as a basis for further activities – e.g. for software design, a shared glossary, or as a roadmap for next steps. The identified hot spots provide concrete action points as input for coordinated follow-up activities.

A key principle: bring together the people with the important questions and the people who have the answers. This dissolves barriers created by team and departmental boundaries. A typical composition is business and development – but it's not limited to that. Experts on cross-cutting topics such as security or data protection, as well as customer representatives, can also provide valuable input that feeds into the shared picture.

A compact session should be planned for at least half a day. Depending on the goal, it's worth deepening the results in successive rounds – possibly with a changing group composition. A typical schedule: a Big Picture EventStorming in the morning with business, development and further stakeholders in a large group, discussion and refinement of the results in the afternoon, and further sessions on Process or Design level with smaller subgroups on following days.

EventStorming can generally also take place remotely – though with some limitations. For large groups, most of whom are attending an EventStorming for the first time, we recommend an on-site session. Remote sessions work very well for groups of up to about 10 people with a clearly defined scope, ideally with teams experienced in the method.

The goal and the right group of participants are clarified in a preparatory conversation, which we consider part of our service. On-site workshops need a room with large, free wall space – free of tables and chairs. We bring all materials ourselves (pens, rolls of paper, plenty of sticky notes, tape, etc.). For remote sessions, we prepare digital whiteboards that remain available to the client after the workshop as well. The biggest pitfalls are unsuitable rooms or missing subject-matter experts in the room – we advise on both in advance.

We bring long-standing experience in various roles in software development. Our team can draw on deep experience across several industries, especially:

• Insurance
• Public sector
• Energy
• Logistics

We're also very much at home in other industries with similarly complex, often historically grown domains and high quality demands.

The price depends on scope and number of participants and is determined individually on request. Just let us know what you have in mind – we'll then put together a non-binding offer with a transparent price structure.