EuroPLoP 2005 Focus Groups
Focus groups are usually free-format discussion groups which bring
together people who are interested in a challenging topic related to
patterns. They bring up issues such as using patterns, organising
patterns, experiences with patterns, or designing pattern languages in
a design fest etc. Interdisciplinary topics are particularly welcome
since they help us learn from other domains. These domains range from
less obvious areas of computing, such as artificial intelligence, to
other areas of science, such as building architecture, mechanical
engineering, music, or film making.
There are 3 long focus groups and 4 short focus groups, with 4 resp. 2 sessions
over the conference. You can choose one long focus group and one short focus
group. Remember that these events typically require some kind of preparation,
so please check with the session description when you decide which session you'd
like to attend.
In EuroPLoP 2005 there are the following LONG Focus Groups:
- Visualizing and Connecting Pattern Languages: This
focus group will look for ways of combining different pattern
languages and supporting orientation in pattern languages by means
of graphical representations. We will discuss conceptual models and
practical concerns related with the visualization of
languages. There will also be the space for reviewing existing
pattern collections and finding out what's so go about them.
- Patterns for Embedded Systems:
Since embedded systems are getting more and more complex and forced to fulfil more and more demanding requirements, such as openness and flexibility, which are well known in the development of desktop systems. When developing such a high level embedded systems, neither an excellent embedded skill set nor advanced desktop experience is sufficient to be successful. While embedded developers stumble into pitfalls that arise from the complexity, the desktop developers miss requirements like resource effectiveness, deployment strategies, start-up times etc. Goal of this workshop is to explore the primary knowledge on embedded systems that are necessary to "ground" an experienced desktop developer. This knowledge will then be organized in a collection of patterns, thereby defining a probably huge list of patterns that are not written yet but would be very helpful as soon as they are out. Participants to this focus group are asked to prepare a list of pattern candidates that are essential for "desktop" software engineers to be successful in development of embedded systems.
Contact: dietmar.schuetz@siemens.com
- Conway's Law: In their recently published book Organizational Patterns for Agile Software Development Coplien & Harrison include a pattern named Conway's Law where the solution calls on organizations to: Make sure the organization is compatible with the product architecture.This focus group will look at Conway's Law in more depth.
In EuroPLoP 2005 there are the following SHORT Focus Groups:
- Architectural Patterns in Practice: Architectural patterns were one of the very few points, where consensus was achieved in the field of software architecture: their significance is well-established and they are essential to architectural description. The goal of this focus group is to examine how practitioners, researchers, developers, etc. make use of the rich but heterogeneous and diverse collection of architectural patterns, found in the literature. The participants will reflect and discuss on some of the key issues of putting architectural patterns to practice, focusing on their hands-on experience. The focus group is intended to initiate what is expected to be a long discussion among interested researchers and practitioners in putting architectural patterns to work.
- Can Pattern Mining Be Improved?:
I am proposing a domain wide pattern crafting process whereby practitioners who normally would not participate in pattern mining would be given a chance to share their experience via interviews with the ghost writer (see Figure 1). In my empirical work it was mainly unstructured and semi-structured interviews where practitioners were asked to talk about projects reflecting on their problem-solving experience. The goals of these interviews were to identify areas of concern to practitioners and ultimately to outline the potential pattern languages. All interviews were audio and video recorded (in particular, video recording of the computer screen helps understand the narration).Goal of this focus group:
Seek the opinions on the proposed process.
- A Pattern Language for Peer-to-Peer Networks: Peer-to-peer networks are very different in their technical architecture and their implementation. But the success of various peer-to-peer networks in certain domains shows, that these implementations are best practice examples for distributed applications. The resulting architectures and implementations of those networks can be understood as strategies and differ according to their problem domains.
Despite their varying implementations, all peer-to-peer networks must cope with communication, large amount of data, and security issues. Moreover, there are similar activities among peers, such as joining and leaving the network, querying for data items, or routing through the network. Those activities depend on the network strategy, but solve recurring problems in peer-to-peer networks.
Some of these topics were discussed on the EuroPLoP 2002 (ref. Peer to Peer Patterns), but not documented as patterns. The intention of this paper is to create a structure for a peer-to-peer pattern language and to document some patterns within the language. For this goal, the pattern language shall include different abstraction levels, which address different software development phases (e.g. analysis, design).
- Patterns for Leading Effective Meetings :
Meetings are part of every day life. They are necessary for planning, discussing and deciding issues in projects. But most of us have -- at least at one point -- sat in a meeting that could have been a lot more effective and wondered how much more time we will need to waste ... Many of us have even spent seemingly endless hours in meetings that seem dull, ineffective or even counterproductive.