Organizational patterns
Encyclopedia
Organizational patterns are recurring structures of relationship, usually in a professional organization, that help the organization achieve its goals.
The patterns are usually inspired by analyzing multiple professional organizations and finding common structures in their social networks.
Such patterns are collected and organized into pattern language
s, which are published as a foundation for process improvement and organizational design, largely in the software development community.
Organizational pattern efforts since 1991 have led to a small body of literature and a community of research and support, both of which have close ties to the software pattern community.
Organizational patterns broadly support knowledge sharing
about organizational design and support corporate memory of reorganizations and process changes.
They are often used as the foundation of project retrospective
s.
Organizational patterns are inspired in large part by the principles of the software pattern community, that in turn takes it cues from Christopher Alexander
's work on patterns of the built world.
Organizational patterns also have roots in Kroeber
's classic anthropological texts on the patterns that underlie culture and society.
They in turn have provided inspiration for the Agile software development movement,
and for the creation of parts of Scrum
and of XP
in particular.
Kroeber
speaks of universal patterns that describe some overall scheme common to all human culture; of systemic patterns are broad but normative forms relating to beliefs, behaviors, signs, and economics; and total culture patterns that are local. Kroeber
notes that systemic patterns can pass from culture to culture:
The pattern aspect of Kroeber
's view fits very well the systems-thinking pattern view of Christopher Alexander
in the field of architecture.
Alexander's books became an inspiration for the software world, and in particular for the object-oriented programming
world, in about 1993.
Organizational patterns in the sense they are recognized in the software community today first made an appearance at the original Hillside Group
workshop that would lead to the pattern community and its PLoP
conferences.
The Hillside Group
sent out a call for pattern papers and, in 1995, held the first pattern conference at Allerton Park in central Illinois in the United States.
The second conference, also at Allerton, would follow a year later.
These first two PLoP
conferences witnessed a handful of organizational patterns:
A flurry of associated publications and follow-up articles followed quickly thereafter, including an extemporization of the organizational patterns approach in the Bell Labs Technical Journal,
an invited piece in ASE,
a CACM article by Alistair Cockburn
and, shortly thereafter, a pattern-laden book by Alistair,
as well as chapters by Benualdi
and Janoff
in the Patterns Handbook.
It was also about this time that Michael Beedle et al. published patterns that described explicit extensions to existing organizational patterns, for application in projects using a then five-year-old software development framework called Scrum.
A few more articles, such as the one by Brash et al.
also started to appear.
Little more happened on the organizational patterns front until the publication of the book by Berczuk et all on configuration management patterns;
this was a break-off effort from the effort originally centered at Bell Labs.
In the mean time, Jim Coplien
and Neil Harrison had been collecting organizational patterns and combining them into a collection of four pattern languages.
Most of these patterns were based on the original research from Bell Laboratories, which studied over 120 organizations over the period of a decade.
These empirical studies were based on subject role-play in software development organizations, reminiscent of the sociodramas of Moreno
's original social network
approach.
However, the pattern language also had substantial input from other sources and in particular the works by Cockburn, Berczuk, and Cunningham.
This collection was published as Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development in 2004.
One of the most recent organizational pattern articles comes from an early pattern contributor and advocate, the object design pioneer Grady Booch.
The early work on organizational patterns at Bell Laboratories focused on extracting patterns from social network
analysis.
That research used empirical role-playing techniques to gather information about the structure of relationships in the subject organization.
These structures were analyzed for recurring patterns across organization and their contribution to achieving organizational goals.
The recurring successful structures were written up in pattern form to describe their tradeoffs and detailed design decisions (forces), the context in which they apply, along with a generic description of the solution.
Patterns provide an incremental path to organizational improvement.
The pattern style of building something (in this case, an organization) is:
As with Alexander-style patterns of software architecture, organizational patterns can be organized into pattern language
s: collections of patterns that build on each other.
A pattern language can suggest the patterns to be applied for a known set of working patterns that are present.
software development and of organizational patterns have been entwined since the beginning.
Kent Beck was the shepherd (interactive pattern reviewer) of the Coplien paper for the 1995 PLoP
,
and he mentions the influence of this work on XP
in a 2003 publication.
The idea of daily Scrum meetings in fact came from a draft of an article for Dr. Dobb's Journal
that described the organizational patterns research on the Borland QPW project.
Beedle's early work with Sutherland brought the pattern perspective more solidly into the history of Scrum.
More recently, the Scrum community has taken up newfound interest in organizational patterns
and there is joint research going forward between the two communities.
In this vein, the first ScrumPLoP
conference took place in Sweden in May, 2010, sanctioned by both the Scrum Alliance and the Hillside Group
.
The patterns are usually inspired by analyzing multiple professional organizations and finding common structures in their social networks.
Such patterns are collected and organized into pattern language
Pattern language
A pattern language, a term coined by architect Christopher Alexander, is a structured method of describing good design practices within a field of expertise. Advocates of this design approach claim that ordinary people of ordinary intelligence can use it to successfully solve very large, complex...
s, which are published as a foundation for process improvement and organizational design, largely in the software development community.
Organizational pattern efforts since 1991 have led to a small body of literature and a community of research and support, both of which have close ties to the software pattern community.
Organizational patterns broadly support knowledge sharing
Knowledge sharing
Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge is exchanged among people, friends, or members of a family, a community or an organization....
about organizational design and support corporate memory of reorganizations and process changes.
They are often used as the foundation of project retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective generally means to take a look back at events that already have taken place. For example, the term is used in medicine, describing a look back at a patient's medical history or lifestyle.-Music:...
s.
Organizational patterns are inspired in large part by the principles of the software pattern community, that in turn takes it cues from Christopher Alexander
Christopher Alexander
Christopher Wolfgang Alexander is a registered architect noted for his theories about design, and for more than 200 building projects in California, Japan, Mexico and around the world...
's work on patterns of the built world.
Organizational patterns also have roots in Kroeber
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber was an American anthropologist. He was the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and played an integral role in the early days of its Museum of Anthropology, where he served as director from 1909 through...
's classic anthropological texts on the patterns that underlie culture and society.
They in turn have provided inspiration for the Agile software development movement,
and for the creation of parts of Scrum
Scrum (development)
Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for project management often seen in agile software development, a type of software engineering....
and of XP
XP
XP may refer to:*Windows XP, an operating system by Microsoft*Office XP, a Microsoft Office version*ΧΡ are the Greek letters that form the Labarum, or the first two letters of "Christ" in Greek*Athlon XP, a line of central processing units by AMD...
in particular.
History
An early explicit citation to patterns of social structure can be found in the anthropological literature.
Patterns are those arrangements or systems of internal relationship which give to any culture its coherence or plan, and keep it from being a mere accumulation of random bits.
They are therefore of primary importance.
Kroeber
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber was an American anthropologist. He was the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and played an integral role in the early days of its Museum of Anthropology, where he served as director from 1909 through...
speaks of universal patterns that describe some overall scheme common to all human culture; of systemic patterns are broad but normative forms relating to beliefs, behaviors, signs, and economics; and total culture patterns that are local. Kroeber
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber was an American anthropologist. He was the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and played an integral role in the early days of its Museum of Anthropology, where he served as director from 1909 through...
notes that systemic patterns can pass from culture to culture:
A second kind of pattern consists of a system or complex of cultural material that has proved its utility as a system and therefore tends to cohere and persist as a unit; it is modifiable only with difficulty as to its underlying plan. Any one such systemic pattern is limited primarily to one aspect of culture, such as subsistence, religion, or economics; but it is not limited areally, or to one particular culture; it can be diffused cross-culturally, from one people to another. . . . What distinguishes these systemic patterns of culture—or well-patterned systems, as they might also be called—is a specific interrelation of their component parts, a nexus that holds them together strongly, and tends to preserve the basic plan... As a result of the persistence of these systemic patterns, their significance becomes most evident on a historical view.
The pattern aspect of Kroeber
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber was an American anthropologist. He was the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and played an integral role in the early days of its Museum of Anthropology, where he served as director from 1909 through...
's view fits very well the systems-thinking pattern view of Christopher Alexander
Christopher Alexander
Christopher Wolfgang Alexander is a registered architect noted for his theories about design, and for more than 200 building projects in California, Japan, Mexico and around the world...
in the field of architecture.
Alexander's books became an inspiration for the software world, and in particular for the object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
world, in about 1993.
Organizational patterns in the sense they are recognized in the software community today first made an appearance at the original Hillside Group
The Hillside Group
The Hillside Group is an educational nonprofit organization established in August 1993. The Hillside Group was formed to help software developers to consider and document common development and design problems in the form of patterns...
workshop that would lead to the pattern community and its PLoP
Plop
Plop is an onomatopoeic term for the sound of an object falling onto a surface or onto water.It may also refer to:* Kabouter Plop, the eponymous hero of the Belgian children's TV and comic strip series...
conferences.
The Hillside Group
The Hillside Group
The Hillside Group is an educational nonprofit organization established in August 1993. The Hillside Group was formed to help software developers to consider and document common development and design problems in the form of patterns...
sent out a call for pattern papers and, in 1995, held the first pattern conference at Allerton Park in central Illinois in the United States.
The second conference, also at Allerton, would follow a year later.
These first two PLoP
Plop
Plop is an onomatopoeic term for the sound of an object falling onto a surface or onto water.It may also refer to:* Kabouter Plop, the eponymous hero of the Belgian children's TV and comic strip series...
conferences witnessed a handful of organizational patterns:
- The RaPPEL pattern language (1995) by Bruce Whitenack that described organizational structures suitable to requirements acquisition;
- The Caterpillar's Fate pattern language (1995) by Norm Kerth that described organizational structures supporting evolution from analysis to design;
- A work by James CoplienJim CoplienJames O. "Jim" Coplien is a writer, lecturer, and researcher in the field of Computer Science. He has made key contributions in the areas of software design, organizational development, software debugging, and in empirical research...
(1995) describing several years of organizational research at Bell Laboratories; - Episodes, a pattern language by Ward Cunningham (1996) describing key points of what today we would call Agile software development;
- A pattern language by Neil Harrison (1996) on the formation and function of teams.
A flurry of associated publications and follow-up articles followed quickly thereafter, including an extemporization of the organizational patterns approach in the Bell Labs Technical Journal,
an invited piece in ASE,
a CACM article by Alistair Cockburn
and, shortly thereafter, a pattern-laden book by Alistair,
as well as chapters by Benualdi
and Janoff
in the Patterns Handbook.
It was also about this time that Michael Beedle et al. published patterns that described explicit extensions to existing organizational patterns, for application in projects using a then five-year-old software development framework called Scrum.
A few more articles, such as the one by Brash et al.
also started to appear.
Little more happened on the organizational patterns front until the publication of the book by Berczuk et all on configuration management patterns;
this was a break-off effort from the effort originally centered at Bell Labs.
In the mean time, Jim Coplien
Jim Coplien
James O. "Jim" Coplien is a writer, lecturer, and researcher in the field of Computer Science. He has made key contributions in the areas of software design, organizational development, software debugging, and in empirical research...
and Neil Harrison had been collecting organizational patterns and combining them into a collection of four pattern languages.
Most of these patterns were based on the original research from Bell Laboratories, which studied over 120 organizations over the period of a decade.
These empirical studies were based on subject role-play in software development organizations, reminiscent of the sociodramas of Moreno
Jacob L. Moreno
Jacob Levy Moreno was a Jewish Romanian-born Austrian-American leading psychiatrist and psychosociologist, thinker and educator, the founder of psychodrama, and the foremost pioneer of group psychotherapy...
's original social network
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
approach.
However, the pattern language also had substantial input from other sources and in particular the works by Cockburn, Berczuk, and Cunningham.
This collection was published as Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development in 2004.
One of the most recent organizational pattern articles comes from an early pattern contributor and advocate, the object design pioneer Grady Booch.
Principles of discovery and use
Like other patterns, organizational patterns aren't created or invented: they are discovered (or "mined") from empirical observation.The early work on organizational patterns at Bell Laboratories focused on extracting patterns from social network
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
analysis.
That research used empirical role-playing techniques to gather information about the structure of relationships in the subject organization.
These structures were analyzed for recurring patterns across organization and their contribution to achieving organizational goals.
The recurring successful structures were written up in pattern form to describe their tradeoffs and detailed design decisions (forces), the context in which they apply, along with a generic description of the solution.
Patterns provide an incremental path to organizational improvement.
The pattern style of building something (in this case, an organization) is:
- Find the weakest part of your organization
- Find a pattern that is likely to strengthen it
- Apply the pattern
- Measure the improvement or degradation
- If the pattern improved things, go to step 1 and find the next improvement; otherwise, undo the pattern and try an alternative.
As with Alexander-style patterns of software architecture, organizational patterns can be organized into pattern language
Pattern language
A pattern language, a term coined by architect Christopher Alexander, is a structured method of describing good design practices within a field of expertise. Advocates of this design approach claim that ordinary people of ordinary intelligence can use it to successfully solve very large, complex...
s: collections of patterns that build on each other.
A pattern language can suggest the patterns to be applied for a known set of working patterns that are present.
Organizational patterns, agile, and other work
The history of AgileAgile
Agile can refer to:*Agility*Agile , an American Thoroughbred racehorse* Agile management*Association of Geographic Information Laboratories for Europe *Agile Software Corporation, a provider of product lifecycle management solutions...
software development and of organizational patterns have been entwined since the beginning.
Kent Beck was the shepherd (interactive pattern reviewer) of the Coplien paper for the 1995 PLoP
Plop
Plop is an onomatopoeic term for the sound of an object falling onto a surface or onto water.It may also refer to:* Kabouter Plop, the eponymous hero of the Belgian children's TV and comic strip series...
,
and he mentions the influence of this work on XP
XP
XP may refer to:*Windows XP, an operating system by Microsoft*Office XP, a Microsoft Office version*ΧΡ are the Greek letters that form the Labarum, or the first two letters of "Christ" in Greek*Athlon XP, a line of central processing units by AMD...
in a 2003 publication.
The idea of daily Scrum meetings in fact came from a draft of an article for Dr. Dobb's Journal
that described the organizational patterns research on the Borland QPW project.
Beedle's early work with Sutherland brought the pattern perspective more solidly into the history of Scrum.
More recently, the Scrum community has taken up newfound interest in organizational patterns
and there is joint research going forward between the two communities.
In this vein, the first ScrumPLoP
Plop
Plop is an onomatopoeic term for the sound of an object falling onto a surface or onto water.It may also refer to:* Kabouter Plop, the eponymous hero of the Belgian children's TV and comic strip series...
conference took place in Sweden in May, 2010, sanctioned by both the Scrum Alliance and the Hillside Group
The Hillside Group
The Hillside Group is an educational nonprofit organization established in August 1993. The Hillside Group was formed to help software developers to consider and document common development and design problems in the form of patterns...
.