Hands-On Event Modeling
Finding a way to design, implement, test and deploy projects has been changing over the last 2 decades. We have taken on countless tools and processes to try and coordinate these efforts in an agile way to build flexible solutions. Somewhere along the line we lost simplicity as we looked for the best tools for each job and plied them on.
It's time to take a step back and look at what actually matters most in our projects. We have to take a minimum set of principles and mechanics to deliver systems without distraction and waste. There needs to be a collaborative medium between all roles so we're not lost in translation from role to role and department to department. The key is information architecture - the missing piece in understanding how requirements affect system design.
Event modeling boils down information systems into 4 elements that work through 4 predictable patterns which are not technical so the business can describe new or understand existing systems. This notation is also at the right level of specification of system design and architecture so that development teams can take it as clear and precise requirements for their work. Most importantly, it allows both sides to work together and help each other understand the goal, vision and effort.
What's so hard about adopting such a simple system? Understanding how to effectively use Event Modeling still requires experience. This workshop aims to give you hands on practice and an opportunity ask questions specific to your organisation or industry. You will learn:
- The event-centric approach to express requirements naturally
- A notation that addresses both visual and analytical learners
- Specification-By-Example
- Deterministic functions and immutability - even from a business perspective
- Team topologies and Conway's Law to maximise understanding between teams
- How to audit your system for completeness
- How to keep coupling to a minimum to allow autonomy in project execution across teams
What do we do with existing tools? We will explore how we can replace, integrate or build on what you've already invested in. If your teams are doing DDD, Lean, Agile, Scrum, XP, PMI or anything else, they can be made more effective as Event Modeling furthers their reach.
What do we do with the emerging AI tools of tomorrow? We will try prompt engineering to get an Event Model representation of what discussed about a product or service. Large Language Models specifically tuned for Event Modeling are emerging in the community. We'll also examine code generation from these Event Models to close the SDLC loop.
Event Modeling is a unifying notation and practice that goes a long way in serving us to understand our systems better. This is as essential now as it is in the future.
