Event Storming sounds like one of those buzzwords consultants throw around to sound smart. But trust me, it’s not. Done right, it’s a cheat code for understanding complex business domains, aligning teams, and avoiding the usual “why didn’t we see this coming?” moments. If you’re an architect, this guide is for you, because the better you can facilitate an Event Storming session, the better your architecture will be.
What Is Event Storming, Really?
At its core, Event Storming is a workshop format for discovering, analyzing, and designing business processes by visualizing domain events, things that have already happened. Unlike traditional requirements gathering, it’s fast, collaborative, and brutally honest. You get a bunch of people in a room, give them sticky notes, and let them map out everything that happens in a business process. Patterns emerge, knowledge gaps surface, and soon enough, you’re looking at the real-world complexity your architecture has to handle.
Now, why should you care? Because if you don’t do this, you’ll design based on assumptions. And assumptions are the fastest way to build a system no one actually needs.
Preparing the Session
Define the Scope
Event Storming can be as broad or as focused as you need. Are you mapping a single business process? A bounded context? The entire company’s operations? Narrowing this down upfront helps avoid a session that turns into an endless debate.
Get the Right People in the Room
You need a mix of perspectives: domain experts, product owners, developers, and anyone else who understands how things really work. Skip this step, and you’ll end up with an idealized model of how things should work, not how they actually do.
Set Expectations
For most participants, this will be weird. No slides, no structured discussions - just sticky notes, markers, and a lot of talking. Make sure they know that’s the point. The messiness is part of the process.
Running the Session
Start with Events
Begin with domain events, things that happen in the business that are significant. Stick to past-tense phrasing:
Invoice SentReservation ConfirmedPayment Failed
This keeps the focus on what actually happens, not what should happen.
Guide, Don’t Dictate
As the facilitator, your job isn’t to come up with the answers - it’s to make sure the right discussions happen. Encourage participants to add notes, challenge assumptions, and explain their thinking.
Handle Difficult Participants
- The Dominator: Keeps talking, won’t let others contribute. Solution: Redirect questions to quieter participants.
- The Skeptic: Doesn’t see the point of this exercise. Solution: Ask them to identify a gap or inconsistency.
- The Silent One: Hesitant to speak up. Solution: Directly invite them to contribute.
Avoid Common Pitfalls
- Jumping to solutions too fast: This is about understanding, not designing
- Overcomplicating notation: You don’t need UML, just sticky notes and a wall
- Losing sight of the goal: Keep the conversation focused on mapping reality, not debating edge cases
Follow-up Actions
Turn Chaos into Structure
Document the findings: photographs, summaries, and maybe a cleaned-up digital version. This isn’t just an exercise; it should feed directly into your architecture decisions.
Align the Team
Now that you have a shared understanding, use it. These insights should influence your domain model, service boundaries, and even your backlog priorities.
Decide What to Build Next
Use what you’ve learned to drive decisions: Which parts of the system are most critical? Where are the biggest unknowns? What should be prototyped first? Event Storming isn’t just about discovery, it’s about making informed architectural choices.
Final Thoughts
Event Storming isn’t magic, but it’s close. It forces clarity, exposes hidden complexity, and builds a shared understanding that’s impossible to get from traditional meetings. As an architect, mastering this technique will make you more effective - not just at designing systems, but at making sure they solve the right problems. So grab some sticky notes, book a room, and start mapping.