Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development

Coplien's work on organisational patterns predates most of the agile movement and is in many ways deeper than the movement it foreshadowed. The piece collects patterns observed in high-performing software organisations — patterns like Stable Teams, Patron, Unity of Purpose, Mercenary Analyst — and describes when each applies and when it does not. For product direction the value is the granularity: instead of prescribing a methodology, Coplien offers a catalogue of patterns that are either present or absent in any team, and that absence is usually diagnostic. Dense, pattern-oriented, in the tradition of Christopher Alexander. Read for the vocabulary, use the vocabulary afterwards.