Main contact:

Martine Devos

affiliation: Applied technology group EDS, Europe

address: Atlantic House, Noorderlaan, 147, B 2030 Belgium

tel:: +32(477)729263

email: martine.devos@eds.com

Looking over my shoulders — participating in other (former) workshops or focus groups — are Neil Harrison , James Coplien and Stephen Berczuk.

The workshop builds on work we did together in preparation of a book on Organisation Patterns and on the results of our workshop at Oopsla '99. The series of focus groups on organisation and process patterns was initiated by Michael Beedle two years ago.

Some software organizations serve their customers well, they deliver on time, deliver a profit to the stockholders and build a supporting workplace for the team. And some don't. Quality of the result of our efforts depends on the quality of communication between users, customers and developers, designers.

Patterns help us understand existing organizations. Patterns have everything to do with transferring knowledge. They are often associated with reuse. They provide transfer of concept, insights, and information.. Our software projects don't span generations.

So we need short cuts, getting teams together that are able of learning and sharing a common language in a short time. A good pattern language for organization should give us both the means of expression and the freedom to tailor the solution to the particular environment and context of application of the patterns.

Learn more about how existing organization patterns interact to create highly productive development organizations.

Learn more about organizations that develop OO software. How are they different from other software development organizations? How are they similar?

What organizational patterns apply only (or chiefly) to OO development organizations? What patterns do not apply? Why?

OO-project managers, technical lead and developers — everybody not working on an island on his own. Both pattern writers and users of process patterns (beginners and experienced).

In this workshop, we are trying to understand more about software development organizations, and what makes them tick.

Our goals for this workshop include the following:

1. Learn existing and (new?) patterns of productive software development organizations.

2. Learn more about how existing organization patterns interact to create highly productive software development organizations.

3. Learn more about organizations that develop OO software. How are they different from other software development organizations? How are they similar? What organizational patterns apply only (or chiefly) to OO development organizations? What patterns do not apply? Why?

Please note that this workshop concentrates on software development organizations. We will not focus on OO design patterns (such as the so-called "Gang of Four" patterns), on software development processes, nor on analysis techniques such as use cases. If any of these are your chief area of interest, you may wish to consider attending other workshops.

If you wish to participate in this workshop, please send us your name, affiliation, address, phone, email, and a 1-2 page position statement on one of the following topics:

1. Your favorite pattern(s) for productive software development organizations and how they apply in your organization

2. Describe how several existing organization patterns interact with each other to foster high productivity in software development organizations.

3. Characterize development organizations in terms of the patterns they have, and differences from traditional software development organizations.