Patterns for Agile Project Management

Time: 09.00-17.00 May 14th.
Workshop leaders: Jim Coplien & Gertrud Bjørnvig

Too many organizational books dictate a one-size-fits-all approach to organizational improvement, or are centered on American or European social values. Instead of delivering hollow promises, organizational patterns deliver tools suitable to analyzing your organization’s strengths and weaknesses and building on small, simple, but sound and proven practices, as a foundation for improving a software development organization.

Audience

People interested in understanding and improving their organizational structure. The focus is on software development, but many of the techniques and ideas transcend many disciplines and certainly go beyond the acts of creating code. Knowledge of Alexandrian patterns is helpful but not necessary. This course is useful both to developers and managers, as well as everyone else in the organization.

Goals

• To better understand Organizational Patterns and Pattern Languages
• To use your own role in your organization to put organizational patterns to work
• To know how to create your own patterns as a knowledge management technique
• To understand the roots of the Agile disciplines at a deeper level

Description

The course introduces the source of organizational patterns in popular use today, and engages students in a mock organizational study to deepen their knowledge of the patterns. We then debrief these studies and investigate applicable patterns one by one. All in all, the course covers over 30 crucial organizational patterns. The day ends in practical, concrete conclusions for each student and an action plan to continue the process at home.

Part I: Introduction to Organizational Patterns

Change and value systems

• The origins of published patterns, and the CRC card technique
• The seven most important organizational patterns in depth

Part II: Mock Organizational Study

Students will create, analyze, and improve a hypothetical organization based on their own experience

Part III: Lessons from the Organizational Study

What roles were dominant? missing?
Key communication paths
Roles and structure
Typical key roles: Gatekeeper, Public Character, Wise Fool

• Learnings about communication
• Communication-focused patterns

Read more what Jim Coplien has to say about the workshop subject in the conference blog.