At SingleStone, we continually improve our approach to helping clients modernize their architecture using Domain-Driven Design (DDD). Last year we published our Domain-Driven Discovery approach on InfoQ, which describes our visual, time-boxed approach to starting modernization journeys.
Today, I’m happy to announce we’re publishing our Domain-Driven Discovery Miro templates as part of a new DDD series, making them freely available for anyone using Miro. The initial set includes:
- DDD: Domain-Driven Discovery Overview
- DDD: Frame the Problem
- DDD: Discover User Journeys with Event Storms
- DDD: Discover Systems with C4 Model
Miro is our go-to tool for facilitating these modernization projects. Over the last few years, we’ve learned how to make these projects engaging and - dare I say - fun for our clients and our teams alike. Seeing people interact and engage in a common digital workspace while also listening and sharing ideas enables the creative collaboration that drives a robust future state architecture.
Why are we publishing templates?
We are making these templates freely available for a few reasons. We want to:
- Make it easier for our clients, our teams, and anyone in the world to use the templates to modernize their architecture
- Show our human-centric approach to solving complex problems that promotes creative collaboration
- Get feedback from our clients and our community on what works well and what could be improved in the future
- Connect us with future clients who are on their modernization journey and could use our help
We are publishing our problem framing and current state templates initially. We plan to publish our future state and roadmap templates later this year, with the Domain-Driven Design template up next. Each template is designed to help guide your team through the important steps in your architecture modernization journey. For facilitators, we hope these templates give you “creative confidence” to lead workshops with your teams.
What’s in each DDD template?
The Domain-Driven Discovery template is a high-level summary and a natural starting point. From this template, you can explore our other templates which are organized around each step in the approach. All of our published Miro templates have a “DDD:” prefix to indicate they are part of our series.
Each template is a self-contained visual canvas that includes:
- Activity Board - A cleanly designed board where the team collaborates on the current and future states using popular methods such as Event Storming and C4 Model.
- Facilitators Guide & Tips - Clear, tested instructions and tips for how to run a collaborative workshop for completing the template — all neatly organized in a separate frame.
- Real World Examples - Real-world examples to align everyone on what done looks like.
- Workshop Agendas - Organized 2 and 3-hour agendas to simplify scheduling and facilitating.
- Talk Track - A 2-minute video introducing the template and highlighting the key features.
How do I install the DDD templates?
Install the templates in three easy steps:
1. From the Miro board where you want to add the template, click Templates near the top of the main menu.
2. Type DDD into the search box at the top. In the results, click “DDD templates from community”.
3. Click “Use Template” on the desired template to get started. Clicking anywhere on the template will reveal more info and a place to leave comments.
Once you add the template to your board, we suggest skimming the activity board to get a feel for the activities and how they are organized before reading the facilitation guide on the left. The 2-minute talk track is also a nice way to get oriented to the template before diving into the details.
How can you help?
We’re sharing these templates to get feedback from you. Please use them on your modernization journey! Feel free to adapt and extend with your own custom activities and let us know how it goes. If you like them, please like them and leave comments. Thank you!
How can we help?
Visual templates, interactive workshops, and team activities are important ingredients to success but alone do not create future state architectures aligned to your desired outcomes. This is where we can help.
