The world in which a software system lives is filled with meaning. The structure, concepts and names that inform the code, its changes and the mental models held by developers are expressions of meaning. The very act of development is an exercise in meaning — it's discovery, its formulation, its communication.
But just because we are immersed in concepts of meaning from an early age, and just because the daily work of software development is about wrangling meaning, that doesn't mean we're necessarily good at it. Let's talk about what we mean.

Target Audience: Developers, Architects, UX, Product Owners
Prerequisites: No specific prerequisites
Level: Advanced

Extended Abstract
"It's just semantics." How many conversations about philosophy, politics and programming are derailed by this thought-stopping comment?
Semantics is all about meaning. If there is one thing we struggle with and need to get better at, it is the search for and clarification of meaning. The world in which a software system lives is filled with meaning. The structure, concepts and names that inform the code, its changes and the mental models held by developers are expressions of meaning. The very act of development is an exercise in meaning — it's discovery, its formulation, its communication. Paradigms, processes and practices are anchored in different ways of thinking about and arriving at meaning.
But just because we are immersed in concepts of meaning from an early age, and just because the daily work of software development is about wrangling meaning, and just because it's just semantics, that doesn't mean we're necessarily good at it. It takes effort and insight. Let's talk about what we mean.

Within DDD we have the perspective of strategic design where we can split a large-system into multiple sub-domains, each having its purpose and responsibilities, where teams can work in autonomous, clean bounded contexts. One of the most effective ways to define these boundaries is by collaborative modelling with all the stakeholders involved in these domains. Join us were we share war stories about our experience doing collaborative modelling in several companies with 30+ people.

Target Audience: Architects, Manager, Decision Makers, Tech Leads
Prerequisites: None
Level: Advanced

Extended Abstract
As a business, we want to make sure our software can handle changes when the business changes. We want to define boundaries that support the flow of the business value. Within Domain-Driven Design we have the perspective of strategic design. A perspective where we can split a large-system into multiple sub-domains, each having its purpose and responsibilities. Within these sub-domains, teams can work in autonomous, clean bounded contexts. One of the most effective ways to define these boundaries is by collaborative modelling with all the stakeholders involved in these domains. But that poses real challenges: What exactly is the definition of a (sub)domain? What is problem space? How can we form a common language of these boundaries? How does a customer journey fit in? And how do you decide and come to a single model in a large group, where everyone shares that same model on a high level?
Join us in this talk where we will show and tell war stories about our experience of having done collaborative modelling in several companies. We will tell our successes, but more importantly our failures and what we learned from them. What are the key heuristics we think that makes a collaborative modelling session with 30+ people, without any DDD knowledge, succeed? What are the skills we need to learn to facilitate it, and how can we make a company not dependent on us as consultants to continue their journey? You will leave with the knowledge of how to start your own collaborative modelling of your domain boundaries. We tell you our definition of (sub)domains, problems and solution space, and how we explained it to the companies we consulted. Providing you with new perspectives on how to embed this as a ritual in your company.