Creative Fun. 5 benefits of starting your project with Event Storming

Precisely defining your goal is just one of the first steps to achieving it. It can be compared to setting yourself up at the starting line. The final shape of the project will depend on what happens on the way. Therefore, it is worth being prepared for as many scenarios as possible. An excellent method for catching many surprises and generating new ideas is the above mentioned Event Storming. Thanks to this technique you will not only better visualize yourself and your team shape of the solution you are about to start working on, but you will also be able to predict various scenarios.

Event Storming is brainstorming on steroids. It is an incubator of new ideas. It is a strainer, thanks to which you will sift out the flawed solutions from the brilliant ones. Event Storming is also creative, fun and an integrating factor for the members of your team.

So how does working on a project using the Event Storming technique look like? 

1. Fast, intensive and effective

Time is one of the greatest luxuries unavailable to most IT professionals. The project usually has to be ready TODAY, presenting at the same time the highest quality and meeting all the client’s expectations. The use of Event Storming is a serious step towards reducing the time needed to deliver a finished product. The technique described for the first time by Alberto Brandolini [read more] allows to create a fairly precise map of business processes within a few hours of a workshop. So just one day of hard, creative and passionate work is enough to achieve something that usually takes weeks! 

2. Creatively and efficiently

The great advantage of Event Storming is the possibility to create a complete behavioral model, ready for quick implementation and testing. It is a technique which allows to develop valuable competencies, such as effective teamwork and using creativity and anticipation of possible incidents. Event Storming also helps the whole team understand the problem they are facing, and thus look for the simplest and most effective ways to solve it.

3. Simple and friendly

In contrast to more “elaborate” methods, Event Storming does not require complicated presentations and UML diagrams. Instead, participants are offered simpler collaboration based on terms understandable not only to people familiar with technical terminology. This way, people for whom the “industry language” of IT specialists is not too different from magic spells will find themselves in Event Storming. There is no need to emphasize how much it facilitates cooperation with the client and prevents misunderstandings, which are not difficult in the case of complex processes. 

4. Engaging and creative

Using the Event Storming technique, you make a complex process, which is undoubtedly the design of IT segment solutions, into an engaging one. Thus, it is a practical approach to domain modeling that allows each person involved to become a significant part of the project. Event Storming involves a lively discussion. The exchange of insights, comments, and ideas is a very simple yet brilliant way to spot any gaps in the project, efficiently resolve misunderstandings (often before they even arise), and apply ideas and solutions that you may not have come up with using a different work model.

5. Comprehensive

Event Storming allows you to create a project model with multiple options for beginning, development and completion – sometimes even very extreme ones. This way, not only are you able to catch possible gaps and weaknesses, but you also get an idea of the time required to complete it. It’s a bit like a corkboard in the office of a film detective – take three steps back, look at the result of your work and get a glimpse! Voilà – here is your project. 

A completed workshop also makes it easier to delegate work to individual departments. Knowing the project and seeing its various stages, you are able to imagine which group will take care of a particular task and which you will delegate others to. This is a great moment to work out how to cooperate between individual groups.

Event Storming – haven’t tried it yet?

It is hard to imagine a better method of visualizing the future project and activities leading to its implementation than Event Storming. To complete the whole to the advantages listed in the above paragraphs, let us add an economic argument. If the group participating in the meeting-workshop manages to prepare a solid model of the project, already at the early stage of work it will be possible to prepare a reliable analysis of profits and losses. With this information, it is easier to make key decisions about how to improve the process. Work and fun. What more do you want?

If you’re looking for a team that specializes in event storming workshops for your project, get in touch.