Skip to main content
Paul Rayner teaching a workshop

Strategic DDD Workshop

Strategic design for complex systems and organizations

When systems grow beyond what one team can hold in their heads, design decisions become organizational decisions. This workshop teaches you to map relationships between systems and teams, identify where to invest in design quality, and structure large-scale systems for sustainable evolution. Builds on the foundations covered in Essential DDD.

Upcoming Dates

May 12-15, 2026

Virtual - 12 hours total (4 sessions x 3 hours each)
9:00am - Noon MDT (UTC-6:00)
Limited to 25 participants
Early bird: $1,450 USD (until April 10, 2026)
Regular: $1,650 USD
3-5 tickets: code Group_3 for $100 off
6+ tickets: code Group_6 for $200 off
Register

Oct 5-8, 2026

Virtual - 12 hours total (4 sessions x 3 hours each)
9:00am - Noon MDT (UTC-6:00)
Limited to 25 participants
Early bird: $1,450 USD (until September 4, 2026)
Regular: $1,650 USD
3-5 tickets: code Group_3 for $100 off
6+ tickets: code Group_6 for $200 off
Register

What You Will Learn

1

Context Mapping

  • Map the relationships between systems and teams in your organization
  • Choose the right integration pattern for each relationship
  • Align technical boundaries with organizational reality
2

Core Domain Identification

  • Identify which parts of your system deserve the most design investment
  • Distinguish core, supporting, and generic subdomains in your landscape
  • Focus engineering effort where it creates competitive advantage
3

Large-Scale Structure

  • Apply patterns for organizing systems beyond individual team boundaries
  • Use responsibility layers and evolving order to manage complexity
  • Evolve existing systems toward better large-scale structure
4

Strategic Design in Practice

  • Plan incremental modernization of legacy systems using strategic patterns
  • Design integration strategies that reduce coupling across system landscapes
  • Build a strategic design roadmap you can take back to your organization

Who Should Attend

  • Senior developers ready to think beyond individual services
  • Software architects making system-wide boundary decisions
  • Technical leads responsible for cross-team integration
  • Engineering managers aligning team structure with system architecture
  • System designers working on large-scale modernization

Essential DDD or equivalent experience is recommended. You should be comfortable with foundational DDD concepts such as bounded contexts, entities, value objects, and aggregates.

Workshop Format

Virtual Delivery

4 sessions of 3 hours each, spread over 4 consecutive days

Interactive Format

Small cohort, camera-on participatory format with collaborative exercises

Tools

Zoom for video conferencing and Miro for collaborative exercises. All software is free to use.

Certificate

Certificate of completion included for all participants who attend the full workshop.

What Participants Say

"DDD can be a tool to identify and maximize ROI in different domains and subdomains. It also lets you realize as developers the big picture. Which of the areas needs attention, resources and are we on to the path that serves more value than liabilities. It organizes thought processes of engineers in regards of which parts should we work most on rather than just coding and coding stuff we don't know could impact the business."

Software Developer

Technology

Strategic DDD

"business + tech conversations are so important for mental models, language and alignment - they should not be under-estimated / under-valued; context mapping could be a really valuable starting point for figuring out where to start and having everyone understand priorities according to core vs supporting vs generic; we need to practise and not expect to get it right the first time"

Workshop Participant

Technology

Strategic DDD

"Understanding the value of context mapping and more advanced of Event storming (especially on defining timelines and policy)"

Software Developer

Technology

Strategic DDD

View All Testimonials

Your Instructor

Paul Rayner

Paul Rayner

Software Design Consultant & DDD Practitioner

35+ years in software development. Creator of Explore DDD conference. Trained 580+ workshop participants with a 9.2/10 average rating. Author and speaker on Domain-Driven Design, EventStorming, and collaborative software design.

Full Bio

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to take Essential DDD first?

Essential DDD or equivalent experience is recommended. You should be familiar with basic DDD concepts like bounded contexts, entities, and value objects.

Is this workshop suitable for non-developers?

Yes, engineering managers and system designers will benefit from the strategic perspective, though some sessions include technical examples.

How is this different from Essential DDD?

Essential DDD covers foundational patterns and tactical building blocks. Strategic DDD focuses on organizational boundaries, context mapping, and making design investment decisions at system scale.

What materials do I receive?

Certificate of completion, course slides, context mapping templates, Miro boards, and reference materials.

Do you offer team discounts?

Yes! Use these discount codes when registering:

  • 3-5 tickets: use code Group_3 for $100 off per ticket
  • 6+ tickets: use code Group_6 for $200 off per ticket

For groups of 10+, consider a private workshop customized to your specific domain.

Ready to Think Strategically About Software Design?

Join the next cohort and learn how to make strategic design decisions that align your technical architecture with business priorities.

Register Now