Domain Storytelling: A Modelling Approach for Business Processes
Understanding and describing requirements is probably the greatest challenge in a software development project. Only well-known and well-understood requirements can be successfully implemented. Even if we select a standard software to support our customers, the right requirements are significant. Requirements engineering is a learning and communication process for us. A precondition for this is feedback – whether in direct dialogue or by informative requirements documents. The domain experts need to validate the requirements documentation so that it is possible to detect mistakes and misunderstandings. With Domain Storytelling we use the principles of learning a new human language. Let experts tell their domain stories. While listening, we record the domain stories using a pictographic language. The domain experts can see immediately whether we have understood their story correctly. After very few stories, we will be able to talk about people, tasks, tools, work items, and events in a domain. Domain Storytelling is an example-based approach for modelling selected business processes and their IT support. The models are easy to understand for people in different departments, business organizations and their specialists alike. The method aims at common understanding and communication about the processes which are modelled. Characteristics of Domain Storytelling are: (a) cooperative business processes are modelled as “cooperation pictures” based on selected scenarios, (b) simple pictograms make models easy to comprehend, (c) processes are structured along the lines of “who makes what with whom”. The initial lecture will present the conceptual basis of Domain Storytelling, putting business process modelling into the context of application-oriented software development. It will characterize software development as a learning and communication process with a strong need for feedback among all parties concerned. The basic principles and concepts of Domain Storytelling will be explained. The tutorial will provide hands-on experience.
Lecture at NEMO2018
Date/Time: Monday, July 23, 2018 at 09:00