Abstract
The reliance on the knowledge garnered from past experience can be crucial for solving problems that occur in any development (Pólya, 1945). A pattern (Buschmann, Henney, & Schmidt, 2007) is a type of conceptually reusable knowledge that has been found useful in various domains of interest (Rising, 2000). For novices, patterns have served as means of guidance; for experts, they have served as means of reference. There are a number of viewpoints of a pattern, and views emanating from these viewpoints (Kamthan, 2010). The interest in this article is to formulate an understanding of a pattern from the perspective of knowledge management. This understanding can, in turn, be useful for communicating a pattern to both humans and machines in a number of ways including publishing a pattern, disseminating a pattern, and using a pattern. The rest of the article is organized as follows. First, the background and related work necessary for subsequent discussion is outlined. Then, relevant stakeholders of a pattern are identified and, based on a process for knowledge creation and transfer that originated in industrial engineering, a knowledge management model for a pattern is proposed. Next, challenges and directions for future research are outlined. Finally, concluding remarks are given.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Explicit Knowledge: A type of human knowledge that has been articulated.
Pattern: An empirically proven solution to a recurring problem that occurs in a particular context.
Tacit Knowledge: A type of human knowledge that cannot be articulated.
Implicit Knowledge: A type of human knowledge that can be, but not has been, articulated.
Social Web: A perceived evolution of the Web in a direction that is driven by ‘collective intelligence,’ realized by information technology, and characterized by user participation, openness, and network effects.
Pattern Management System: An interactive software system with responsibilities including archiving a selected collection of patterns that could evolve (added, deleted, or modified), facilitating the discovery of those patterns (say, via navigation or searching), and rendering those patterns on a user agent. For example, a PMS could be based on a client-server environment of the Web.
Semantic Web: A perceived evolution of the Web that adds technological infrastructure for better knowledge representation, interpretation, and reasoning.
Pattern Engineering: A systematic and disciplined approach to (1) the definition, subsequent use, and maintenance, and (2) interface to humans, machines, and other entities of knowledge, of a pattern within the given constraints of available resources.