Collaborative software design - How to facilitate domain modeling decisions

TEQNation - 17th of May 2023

Designing a software system is difficult. Understanding the context in which a software system lives is more difficult. In order to understand that context, developers need to communicate with the business. But there is a lot that can go wrong while communicating with the business. For example people can misunderstand what is being said, they are scared to speak up, tensions could grow, and conflict can arise. These social dynamics cause groups to stop sharing their knowledge, which can end up in resistance behaviour from sarcastic jokes, to stopped communication or even not showing up or leaving the session. No wonder a lot of organisations resort to a more autocratic form of decision-making, where one person, the architect, analyses and makes the decision. If we want to make sustainable design decisions for our architecture that is embraced by everyone, it is better to use visual techniques to make assumptions more explicit which will improve collaboration between developer teams and the domain experts.

In this talk we will introduce you to collaborative modelling and its social dynamic challenges. Collaborative modelling is a visualisation technique to analyse complex and conflict-laden decision-making processes with all relevant stakeholders and decision-makers to create a shared understanding. And some, maybe even most of these sessions need to be facilitated so that everyone can feel a part of the decision and can potentially give the input they have. I will explain why it requires us to have a different skills set like observing, listening, trying to stay neutral and show compassion. Because that improved collaboration will let software teams understand better the context and underlying problems the business has. That understanding enables the software teams to design and build sustainable quality software products.

Transcript

1. Collaborative software design How to facilitate domain modeling decisions Photo by Agnieszka Ziomek on Unsplash
2. What is happening at BigScreen? Photo by Karla Hernandez on Unsplash
3. Software system has turned into a Big Ball of Mud
4. Features take longer and longer, or impossible to implement
5. FRUSTRATIONS …
6. FRUSTRATIONS FOR EVERYONE
7. Software team wants to redesign the system Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
8. What they hope to achieve
9. Prevent this from happening again (by better collaboration together and with the business) Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash
10. CoMo to the rescue
11. Collaborative modelling, what is it? A visualization technique to analyse complex and conflict-laden decision-making processes with all relevant stakeholders and decision-makers to create a shared understanding Photo by airfocus on Unsplash
12. Software? • Used to understand the problem • Used to design solutions for the problem
13. MANY TOOLS
14. How they thought it would go…
15. We will align a bit.
16. We will use EVENTSTORMING to understand the business needs
17. Throw in some EXAMPLE MAPPING
18. We will do decomposition
19. Don’t forget connect!
20. TADA!
22. The answer: HUMANS
23. Humans and their interaction Humans and their interpersonal relationships Humans and their sense of hierarchy and ranking Humans and their assumptions Humans and their personal feelings and opinions Humans and their personal interest …. Humans.
24. Social challenges during collaborative modeling • RANKING • CONFLICT • COGNITIVE BIAS • RESISTANCE • POLARITIES
25. Why should you care? Because a lot of problems exist because people are ignoring the “socio” in sociotechnical systems
26. Redesigning a system is a sociotechnical happening
27. Technical choices have social consequences and vice versa • Choosing a certain technology will increase a skill gap that needs to be fixed • Defining boundaries of bounded contexts will imply team changes • Decisions will (most likely...) lead to resistance and conflict • ...
28. Collaborative modeling is a sociotechnical happening
29. Collaborative modeling implies a lot of people in a room... • Who's taking the lead? • Who talks first? Who talks a lot? Who isn't talking? • Which subgroups emerge during the sessions? • Are there a lot of discussions going on? • Are people understanding each other? • Who is moving stickies around? • How much detail is required in this session? • How is the group handling decision making?
30. A FACILITATOR! WHO YOU GONNA CALL?
31. Importance of a facilitator MAKING THINGS EASIER FOR THE GROUP
33. Facilitator is a role, not a job title A FACILITATOR HAS ROLES TOO
34. Facilitator as observer USING YOUR FLASHLIGHT
36. Neutrality is a verb
37. Collaborative modelling works Don’t get us wrong
38. Aim for sustainable design decisions
39. SUSTAINABILITY Consistency and clarity on your design decisions Photo by Victor on Unsplash
40. CONSISTENCY
42. INFORMATION Collaborative modelling to understand the business processes, the rules and policies, the user journey, workflows…
43. Designing alternatives
44. Analysing
45. DECISION <> OUTCOME Photo by Jens Lelie on Unsplash
46. UNCERTAINTY Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash
47. FEEDBACK LOOPS
48. RESULTING Quality of decision is being confused with the quality of the outcome
49. HUMANS! Photo by Tamara Gak on Unsplash
50. Consider the real sociotechnical impact Socio is not just about team organization and autonomy
51. Who can decide what? • What decisions can the software team make? • What decisions can the business make? • What decisions will happen by the architect?
52. How are we deciding?
53. Over time, you will find yourself making decisions in a similar way.
54. Facilitator helps with clarity and consistency
55. This is when your decisions become sustainable.
56. SUMMARY • Collaborative modeling? • Social challenges during collaborative modeling • The role of the facilitator • Skills a facilitator has • Sustainable decision making Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash
57. Discount code: ctwteqn23