Architecture and Patterns for IT Service Management, Resource Planning, and Governance: Making Shoes for the Cobbler's Children

Chapter 5 Patterns for IT Enablement

In software engineering, a design pattern is a general solution to a common problem…. A design pattern isn’t a finished design that can be transformed directly into [program] code; it is a description or template for how to solve a problem that can be used in many different situations.

—Wikipedia²¹²

THE CONCEPT OF PATTERNS, originating in building architecture and city planning,²¹³ has been applied in computing for almost two decades. This book also uses a pattern language, but it does so at a higher level than the software engineering pattern literature; patterns of process, organization, data sourcing and flow, and human motivation are discussed.²¹⁴

5.1 Why Apply Patterns?

If the scope of this book were ...