Big Picture Event Storming

The first level of Event Storming. Maps an entire business flow on a timeline using domain events, with no concern for code or implementation.

Big Picture Event Storming is the first and broadest level of Event Storming: you map an entire business flow on a timeline using only domain events, with no concern for code, aggregates, or implementation details.

The goal is shared understanding. Stakeholders, developers, and operations people all stand around the same wall and place orange sticky notes ("Order Placed", "Payment Received", "Receipt Issued") on a left-to-right timeline. Where the events get sparse or contradictory, the team has uncovered something they don't actually agree on. That's the whole point. A facilitator parks off-topic discussions on red sticky notes so the group keeps moving through the whole flow instead of getting stuck on one corner.

After Big Picture, you can zoom in with a Process Level Event Storming session for one specific area you want to design and ship.

For most projects, a Big Picture session with just events is already enough to expose the major misunderstandings before a single line of code is written.

Notation

At Big Picture level you almost always use only one color:

• Orange: Domain events. Past tense, on a left-to-right timeline.

Optionally, one more note earns its keep at this level:

• Red: Hotspots. Confusion, disagreement, or open questions you want to come back to.

Everything else (commands, aggregates, read models) belongs to Process Level Event Storming.