Pattern Languages
What’s the pattern that links tall buildings, insanity, and software?
It turns out that people who live on the upper floors of tall buildings don’t go out as often as other people do. They don’t interact with other people as frequently. In short, they don’t get their daily dose of reality. And being detached from reality can lead to depression and then insanity.
The relationship between height and insanity is one of 250 patterns that Christopher Alexander et al identified in their 1977 book, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. The basic idea is to identify patterns in living arrangements that make a town more or less healthy. By emphasizing certain patterns, architects and urban planners can create more functional, healthier cities.
Shortly after A Pattern Language debuted, computer scientists started to look for similar patterns in their world. Could they build software based on patterns rather than, say, on algorithms? The answer is “yes” and pattern-based software delivers some significant advantages, including fewer lines of code and greater reusability. It also lends itself to creating applications that can be called as a service – in other words, Service Oriented Architecture or SOA.
As pattern languages evolved, they also segmented. There are certain patterns in, say, climate modeling and others in pharmaceutical research. Since we’re a business software company, we’ve created a pattern language for patterns that occur in business. We call it Landmark and we believe it’s the first true pattern language for business applications.
With Landmark, we can build rich applications more quickly while still maintaining a high degree of quality. We used Landmark first to build Strategic Sourcing and, more recently, to build the entire Strategic Human Capital Management suite. We couldn’t have done either as quickly or cleanly without Landmark.
Ultimately, there are three major benefits to Landmark. First, we can deliver more functionality, with higher quality, in a shorter time than we could using conventional tools. Second, we can package new functions as callable services, making it easier for you to absorb them. We believe this will give you more functionality with less disruption. Third, Landmark gives us a lever to compete with bigger software companies. We can deliver the functionality you need with fewer resources. Do you see a pattern emerging?
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