Hirt und Schaff: Techniques of Shepherding
Introduction
An essential process in the course of preparing patterns for workshops
is the shepherding process. Sooner or later, nearly everyone in the patterns
community is involved -- either as a shepherd or as a sheep! In this workshop,
we will explore how to be a good shepherd. Equally importantly, we will
discuss how to receive the advice from the shepherd; in other words, how
to be a good sheep.
Goals
This workshop has two goals:
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Help the participants become better shepherds and sheep.
-
Create some guidelines for shepherds and sheep that we will give to the
patterns community, so as to help the entire community learn. These guidelines
may provide the basis for a pattern language, although it is not our goal
to create one in this workshop.
What we Will Do
Our time together will be devoted to two main activities. We will first
discuss the things that good shepherds and sheep do. Then we will practice
them. The approximate schedule is as follows:
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Introductions, explanations, and a short history of shepherding (15 min).
-
What should a shepherd do? (20 min).
-
What should a sheep do? (20 min).
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Small group practice sessions (3 at 20 min. each). Each has:
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Shepherd practice (10 min.)
-
Feedback (10 min.)
-
Review and summary (15 min)
Total time: 2 hours 15 minutes.
Who May Come?
Anybody! No experience is necessary.
There will be no preregistration, but you are welcome to tell me in
advance that you will be there.
Preparation
Strictly, there is no preparation required. However, you will get a lot
more out of it if you bring something to work on. It is strongly recommended
that you bring a pattern that conforms to the following guidelines:
-
It's still a rough draft. (Shepherding perfect patterns isn't as much fun.)
In fact, it it takes you more than 15 or 20 minutes to write it, it's probably
too much.
-
It is very short; less than one page long. It may be handwritten.
-
It may be on any topic you want, but it should be easy to understand.
-
Bring three or four copies with you.
Questions?
This workshop is run by:
Neil Harrison
Lucent Technologies
USA (303) 538-1541
nbharrison@lucent.com