The Big Picture

An Open Technical practice that costs little to produce but is great in creating a shared understanding of part of a system is the Big Picture workshop. It is a simple practice used to visualize all the steps that a software pipeline goes through in moving code from source (for example, Git), through compile and test, and then into the hands of our happy users. Building it collaboratively is a great activity for a team to do as it helps to bridge the gap between techies and business folks. It's great for articulating the importance and sometimes the complexity of continuous delivery.

Figure 7.1: The Big Picture

A Big Picture can easily be created with just some stickies and a clear board or space. Of course, if you're feeling more artistic, it can also be doodled!

Figure 7.2: An example Big Picture

You may be reading this and thinking Sounds fluffy to me – why should I bother to make one...