In the time since then I have noticed many PMs and BAs I have spent with are unfamiliar with the term and concepts behind it. No surprise really, as I had worked with I.T. projects for over 10 years as a 'business' oriented person, and I never got invited into the programmer's library. Why should I expect everyone else has?
What is a Deign Pattern? It is what it sounds like. I'll not go into detail explaining it, but will instead provide a short reading list. Let' start with Wikipedia.
- Wikipedia introduction - a not so basic introduction
- CodeBetter introduction article - an in depth introduction to a particular type of design pattern
- Gang of Four Design Patterns - Does it stand the test of time? - A short InfoQ piece looking at challenges to the design pattern concept
- Gang of Four Design Patterns - the "Gang of Four" wrote the seminal book on the topic. Here are diagramatic descriptions of their patterns
- Printable reference cards - useful for the team, maybe?
Image care of Penguin & Fish cc at Flickr
There is 'Analysis pattern' book that may be more relavent for business analysts.
ReplyDeleteAnalysis Patterns: Reusable Object Models by Martin Fowler
I got taught design pattern in uni (did a computer science degree) and when I got a businss analyst job I wanted to find something similar and found this.
Reminds me of my Information Engineering days where it became apparent to me, after coming up with a number of high level conceptual data models, that there are repeating concepts that tend to correspond to various subject areas. Having done more and more models has resulted in the identification of repeating and predictable designs. The trick, at the end of the day, is not in knowing that the models are predictable but rather in the ability to identify them well in advance in order to cut down design and development times.
ReplyDeleteYuan - what did you thnk about the Fowler book?
ReplyDeleteI don’t know how, but this is something I’ve honestly never heard of – so I’m looking forward to learning / reading more and implementing some of the techniques. What link do you see between design patterns and SCRUM/Agile methodologies?
ReplyDeleteGabriel
ReplyDeleteI think the idea around planning as you go and forgoing up front planning is relative to your ability to hit a problem and deal with it on the run.
If you aren’t familiar with the problem domain you’ll need to think about it up front to a greater degree. This goes for business problem domains as much as technical ones.
Patterns are a shortcut to problem solving that come augment a person’s natural accumulation of experience.
That’s my thinking.
Craig
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ReplyDelete