Getting Agile

A. Nicklas Malik describes the need for “up front design” in his blog entry “When emergent design doesn't”. I tend to agree with his assessment of the need for some design. We have all had our moments of clarity in which we designed part or all of a system with unusually elegant form and simplicity. When we hit that architectural apex we don‘t wanna come down. Well, then the real world hits you. Not all teams are equal. Not all team members are equal. Not all situations are equal. And even more importantly, not all customers are equal.

This comment about the blog entry asserts that having awareness of the correct design questions is more important than having the possible design solutions. This comment brings me back to the desciptions of patterns and their most important attribute, in my opinion, context. The actual implementations of patterns change over time based on the tools and materials used, but the context remains the same.

A. Nicklas Malik‘s reply to the comment had good information but I believe missed the original point slightly. The commenters point, by my interpretation, is that the questions which lead to the final solution are more important since they drive the implementation details. Yes, we have many ways to “validate a field which contains a formatted number“ as he describes but this seems quite similar to the analogy made, “how do I get in?” while referring to design of an art gallery by the commenter.

I agree that the software development industry is still in it‘s infancy and that patterns will become more apparent through time. There is a great book called “Enterprise Patterns and MDA : Building Better Software with Archetype Patterns and UML” which describes large scale patterns called archetypes. These are models of a well defined business systems. An interesting aspect of these patterns is the optional models and attributes. This allows for some flexibility and creativity when designing a system, or for that matter a building. My art gallery does need a door to enter through, but does it need to have a peep hole? Probably not and that is an optional component of a door possibly. Probably not the best example I can come up with but it‘s what popped into my mind right now (…getting late).

When applying patterns there are many considerations which we determine answers for based upon the situation. I am sure there are many of you who have seen pattern misuse and overload. The right questions, which come with experience, will increase the value of a design more than the pattern itself.