Re:Anti-pattern Rant (Score 1)

My co-authors and I became interested in patterns after earlier work in "best practices." We had been working for a client to capture them, but we realized that just because a practice works in one organization, does not necessarily mean it will work in another. The approach we took focused on both the effective practices that we found, but also the context in which they were practiced, i.e. we wanted "best fit" practices not just "best" practices. We found that the pattern format was a good way to capture and communicate these kinds of organizational insights because of the explicit concern for both the problem to be solved and the context in which it occurs. Of course, as the earlier post in this thread suggests, the problem and context are lost on some readers :+)

Your critique on the OO/Design Patterns is interesting, I am not sure that it addresses how patterns were used in the book to communicate ideas on how organizations behave. I mentioned in one of the other posts that the chapter on rhythm is availble online. That chapter includes several patterns that are typical of the style and substance of the others in the book.