This document discusses the use of patterns to aid in business and IT alignment capabilities. It defines patterns, provides examples of pattern use from various organizations, and discusses challenges in supporting capability delivery through patterns. Patterns capture recurring solutions to problems in a generic and reusable way. They can be used to share and apply organizational knowledge and best practices. However, challenges remain in formalizing patterns and representing different types of models and solutions within patterns.

1. An Outlook on Patterns as an Aid
for Business and IT Alignment with
Capabilities
Janis Stirna, Stockholm University
Kurt Sandkuhl, University of Rostock

2. Outline
• The need
• Capability
• Pattern concept
• Example cases
• Challenges

3. Problem: Enterprise models have a lot
of reusable knowledge….
How to identify?
How to capture?
How to represent?
How to share and apply?
… a solution –
use patterns

4. A meta-model for capability design
amodel
Capability Goal
Indicator
Context Indicator
KPI
ContextSet
ProcessProcessVariantPattern
ContextElementRange
Measurable
Property
ContextElement
ResourceContext Situation
Context Element
Value
0..1
requires
1..*
*
measured by
0..1
1..*
requires
0..1
1 1..*
*
influences
*
*
requires
1
0..1
supported by
1
1..*
requires
1..*
1
defines
*
1
has
*
1..*
motivates
1..*
1..*
consists of
1
1
requires
0..1
1
requires
0..1
11..*
1
consists of
1..*
11..*
1
has value
1..*
1..*
related to
0..1
Enterprise
Modeling
Reuse and
Variability
Context

5. 5
• In architecture
– "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"
Alexander, 1977
• In O-O design
– "An object-oriented pattern is an abstraction of a doublet, triplet or other small
grouping of classes that is likely to be helpful again and again in object-
oriented development" Coad, 1992
– "A design pattern is a description of communicating objects and classes that
are customised to solve a general problem in a particular context" Gamma,
1994
• In business analysis
– "An idea that has been useful in one practical context and will probably be
useful in others" Fowler, 1997
– "Generic and abstract organisational design proposals that can be easily
adapted and reused in different organisational situations" Bubenko, Persson,
and Stirna, 2001
The pattern concept

6. Example of the state of the art
• Problem: How to model a customer order and
different product quantities?
for
Concept 58
E-Shop customer
Concept 59
Customer orderplaces
Concept 6
Product
• Solution: Introduce order line with attribute
quantity shown below
Order
Line Item
-quantity
Product
• When applied
for
Concept 58
E-Shop customer
Concept 59
Customer orderplaces
Concept 6
Product
Concept 6
Line item
consists of
Quantity
Pattern:

7. 7
Pattern description
• A pattern is a self-contained logical system that is capable
of stating:
– that a given problem exists within a stated range of contexts, and
– that in the given context, a given solution solves the given problem.
• Typically described according to a template:
– Problem - describes the issues that the pattern wishes to address
within the given context and forces
– Context - describes the preconditions under which the problem and
its solution seem to occur
– Forces - describe the relevant forces and constraints and how they
interact/conflict with one another and with goals we wish to achieve
– Solution - describes how to achieve the desired result, in terms of
the work needed. It can be expressed in natural language,
enterprise models, drawings, multimedia, etc.

8. 8
f1
The need for patterns in the
business setting
• Coupling of problem and solution
• Abstraction
• Repeatability
Pattern
(generic description)
Organisation C
Organisation B
Useful for reuse of
experience and
management of
knowledge in
enterprises
Organisation A
Organisation X
Specific
business solution
Organisation
specific and
potentially
reusable solution
Pattern
applications

9. Pattern elicitation
• Pattern detection: analyze (a large number of) sources in
the area under consideration (e.g. enterprise models,
software designs, etc.) for recurring solutions
• Pattern derivation: use knowledge from related areas
(e.g. process models, information flow diagrams,
enterprise models) and derive patterns from this
knowledge
• Pattern construction: use expert knowledge in the
domain and construct patterns based on this knowledge
• Community-based pattern development: use
communities of people with knowledge in the field (on the
web, wikis, in conferences (e.g. PLoP) or associations) to
develop patterns.

10. Example: Model supported knowledge
sharing at the Riga City Council
• Patterns used for
capturing best practices
• Created by experts and
employees of the RCC
• Used by employees within
the RCC

11. Example: Task Patterns at
Kongsberg Automotive
• Engineering process
patterns
• Created by methodology
experts
• Metis tool
• Integrated with an
execution environment –
the AKM platform

12. Example: Information Demand
Patterns at Proton Engineering
• Address recurring information flow problems that arise for
specific roles and work situations in an enterprise and presents
a conceptual solution to it.

13. Challenges for Supporting
Capability Delivery
• Way of modeling and repository management –
both dimensions of reuse
… and execution

14. Name: PatterName
Problem: Some text here explaining
the problem
Context: Some text and/or context
model fragment
Solution: Some text and/or model
fragment
Usage guidelines: Some text
explanatio here
Keywords: Keyword1, Keyword2,
Keyword3
Examples:
A context model of a company
A context model
fragment relevant
to this pattern
Proc. Ext
Sales process
Inf. 1
Description of
the project
Inf.2
Information about
reference people
(Who knows what?)
Inf3.
Similar projects in
the past
Inf 4.
Description ot the
service concept
Inf 5.
Templates
Inf 6.
Earlier projects with
the same customer
Inf 7.
Information from sister companies
about similar projects
Inf 8.
Description of
delivery process
Inf 9.
PPS
Inf 10.
Patterns
Inf 11.
Information about
employees (Workload,
competence, experience,
personality type).
Inf 12.
External experiences
from similar projects
Inf 13.
Knowledge about the
information content
Input to Proc 1: Plan project/
assignment
Proc. 1.1
Plan project/
assignment
Inf 14.
Additional background
information about the
assignment
Proc. 1.2
Passing over
Role1:
Sales person
persorms
performs
Role 2:
Project manager
Role 3:
Project
participant
performs
participates
Proc. 1.1.1
Verify if project
description is
complete enought
part of
Inf. 15
Additional
requirements
from the
customer
Inf. 16
Project plan
Proc.1.3
Approval of the
project plan
Inf. 16
Approved
project plan
Role 4:
Project group
performs
Role 2:
Project manager
leads
Role 5:
Customer
is part of
Business Process 1: Plan project
A specific useful
model
Reusable
solution part
of the pattern
New business solution,
e..g process model
containing pattern
*
*
*
*
trac
e
Variation
point
trac
e
trac
e

15. More Challenges
• Design oriented patterns (more traditional)
• Solution oriented patterns
– need to specify how to compose the solution and
how to run it
• What should the formalisms be:
– Process models and concepts models have been
widely used
– What other types of models (e.g. goals, services,
actors, IS architecture)?
– How to represented algorithms within pattern?

16. Time for a discussion
• Contact:
– Janis Stirna js@dsv.su.se
– Kurt Sandkuhl kurt.sandkuhl@uni-rostock.de
– CaaS project: caas-project.eu