Whenever I give or facilitate an EventStorming training or workshop people always ask me, what is inside your suitcase? What are the essential items I need to do a successful EventStorming? Most importantly what do I need to buy! So in this post, I will give you the EventStorming tools that are in my flight case and where you can buy it!
First of all, for an EventStorming, you can pick any colour you like. I would advise you to stay consistent with doing EventStorming for yourself, the teams and the company. Besides that always use a legend. For myself, I still use the standard colour because that usually is also what people recognise. The following is the picture that explains almost everything, and the colour you generally use in all the types of EventStorming.
- Domain event (orange 3×3 inches):
- Action or Command (Blue 3×3 inches):
- Information or Read model (Green 3×3 inches):
- Hotspot (pinkish):
Now to save some cost, you can also buy these as a big package. Be aware that you will use more orange than the rest, and this package does not match entirely with the neons. SO you will either end up with a lot more blue, green and pink than with the orange. Or you need to buy orange neons to fill up and then it can happen that the orange colours won’t match.
USA: https://www.amazon.com/Post-Sticking-Janeiro-Collection-654-24SSAU-CP/dp/B00CMKA9HK/
EU: https://www.amazon.de/Post-Sticking-Janeiro-Collection-654-24SSAU-CP/dp/B00CMKA9HK/
The bigger 3×5 inches are hard to find in a separate package, 3m recently changed their offers. So I would go with the following, also greener box, that has all three colours you need; Aggregate or Consistent Business Rule (Yellow), Policy or Eventual Consistent Business Rule (Purple), system (pink):
USA: https://www.amazon.com/Post-Greener-Helsinki-Collection-655-RP/dp/B00006JNL2/
EU: https://www.amazon.de/Post-Greener-Helsinki-Collection-655-RP/dp/B00006JNL2/
The only thing we lack now is the small post-it for actors, the little yellow. We have a lot of options too but. Now I also use the small post-its for other concepts like value streaming and arrows voting. Because I use multiple colours I always buy:
USA: https://www.amazon.com/Assorted-Pastel-Post-Recycled-Notes/dp/B00006JNMT/
EU: https://www.amazon.de/Assorted-Pastel-Post-Recycled-Notes/dp/B00006JNMT/
If you like more squared post-it, try these:
USA: https://www.amazon.de/Post-62212SY-Haftnotiz-Sticky-kanariengelb/dp/B016OON3JA/
EU: https://www.amazon.com/Post-62212SY-Haftnotiz-Sticky-kanariengelb/dp/B016OON3JA/
Extended items
As you might have seen from the picture above, I have more eventstorming tools in my flight case. I give not only EventStorming training but also Example Mapping, Impact Mapping, Domain Story Telling, User Story Mapping, Heuristics Mapping; basically, I mix and match whenever I feel it is needed. For that I have more in the suitcase, here is a list of what I have.
- Scissors
- Paper Roll:
- Masking Tape:
- Post-it label (Great for creating boundaries):
- Pergamy Roll notes (Great for making boundaries): https://discountoffice.nl/p/roll-notes-ft-10-m-x-50-mm-neon-geel/
(Have not found this anywhere else than in the Netherlands) - Scotch 3m masking tape (for making arrows):
- Super Sticky Notes 4×6 inch, Rio de Janeiro Collection, Lined
- 4 coloured index cards:
- Alternatively, you can also order these separately here:
- Several kinds of Neulands markers for whiteboard and paper: https://www.neuland.com/
- Sharpies:
Also, this post is published on the Xebia blog site.
