Design Patterns
Community
Tending to the community aspect of the group was as important as the patterns themselves. Cultivating Communities of Practice has some good suggestions for keeping the group "alive", engaged, and responsive. Robert Putnam also talks about the benefits of communities in Bowling Alone
Discussion Format
Joshua Kerievsky lays out a nice format of a design patterns study group in A learning Guide to Design Patterns. Within the discussions, someone plays the role of facillitor, essentially the gadfly that peppers the group with questions, keeping the socratic dialogue alive. It was not a presentation, and this was important. We were all equals in our knowledge, so a simple conversation style let us share information efficiently and stay engaged.
Another important element was the cadence or rhythm works of the group. Every Wednesday at lunch we'd meet - and there were no problems with expectations or coordination. If you couldn't make it, you came to the next one. No problem.
Also important was preparation. Here are some questions that I created to guide the discussion:
Abstract Factory Adaptor Bridge Builder Chain of Responsibility Command Composite |
Decorator Facade Factory Flyweight Iterator Interpreter Mediator Memento |
Observer Proxy Singleton State Strategy Template Visitor |
Resources
Of course the best resource is the timeless Design Patterns
Well, this was our group at least, and I hope some of it helps with your own. Good luck!
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I am currently living in Pittsburgh, PA, working as a Senior Technical Consultant for Summa, and studying as a part-time graduate student in Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. |