Organisational patterns

Alexander defines patterns as "a problem which occurs over an over again in our environment and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing the same twice". In the EKP approach we see organisational patterns as "generic and abstract organisational design proposals that can be easily adapted and reused in different organisational situations". They can be reusable: As argued by Coad, “finding and applying patterns indicates progress in a field of human endeavour”. The progress lies in the fact that by constructing a pattern, domain practitioners condense part of their knowledge on current domain practice and make it available to others. In fact, a pattern indicates best practice in a domain, practice that has proved to be sound and efficient, and can therefore be disseminated. When other practitioners subsequently reuse this pattern, they benefit from the experience of the pattern designers. In this way they can create solutions to new problems by combining elements of solutions to previous problems and avoid “re-inventing the wheel” every time a new situation needs to be addressed. In other words, patterns are a medium that helps the dissemination of best practices throughout a domain.

Patterns are built by observing practice in a domain or by trial-and-error. This means that they are developed by building many EKD models of different situations. Moreover, the patterns will contain part of the experience gained by applying or constructing such models, in the form of guidelines for the application of the pattern. In order to facilitate the reuse of the knowledge embedded in patterns we have structured the pattern in two main components – the knowledge component and the usage component The knowledge component answers questions such as, what problem does the pattern solve, and how this problem can be solved. The solution to the problem can be described through free natural language, diagrammatic description (e.g. an EKD goals model, process model, concepts model, etc.), multimedia content or a combination of all three. The usage component answers questions such as, when can the pattern be reused, how can the pattern be reused, what are the consequences of reusing the pattern, where has the pattern been reused, etc. Figure 2 depicts the outline of the pattern template used in the HyperKnowledge project. It was further developed from the one used in the ELEKTRA project.

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