Scenario Casting is a collaborative tool for structuring software development projects - driven by domain expertise - expressed in scenarios. Scenario Casting is especially useful for getting to grips with complex or elusive domains. If your domain feels like this, and maybe a lot of people are involved, try Scenario Casting.

A SCENARIO is an outline of some interesting situation that implies a certain outcome, e.g. "Ada orders a calzone pizza". It's as simple as that.

A scenario is described from domain perspective in pure domain language. It is concrete, detailed and distinctive.

A scenario makes sense. A good scenario is bursting with concrete information about the domain. It shows all relevant results along an exemplary business process and how they are related.

A scenario does NOT prescribe a solution. It shows an example of what is happening in the domain to help people understand what they need a solution for.

A scenario is like a journey of discovery! A scenario enables you to...

• learn more about people, concerns, conventions, policies, things.
• visit points of interest - and form your own impression of them.
• cross borders and see how areas are connected.
• make whole new discoveries and get ideas for future trips.

Scenario Casting is done collaboratively in three iterative steps:

1. Brainstorm example scenarios of how individual ideas, questions and concerns affect the domain - strictly in domain language! This provides an initial Scenario Backlog outlining the problem space.
2. Prioritize the Scenario Backlog and agree on scope.
3. Combine the top scenarios into coherent overarching Orientation Scenarios.

Then flesh out and tell the stories of the Orientation Scenarios in collaborative modeling sessions using

Domain Storytelling or Event Storming.

A Scenario Casting is carried out iteratively. Whenever you start a new iteration or phase of a project, start with a Scenario Casting, to get an overview of the domain and to set a focus for everyone involved.

If you already have a bulging Scenario Backlog, you can skip step 1 (brainstorming) and move on to step 2 (prioritizing). If the highest priority scenarios seem manageable and each seems interesting enough on its own, skip step 3 (combining) and flesh out the individual scenarios directly. Scenario Casting can be extensive and in-depth or very short and concise - depending on your situational needs. Keep it lightweight!