A Bit of Background

What's the background for Atlas Patterns?

Well, consulting can seem like a bit of a black art, especially with many consulting companies shrouding their practices in a veil of secrecy, and to a certain degree, it is.

Creating the right value for the right stakeholders in the right ways with digital collaboration tools is certainly not easy. Identifying and describing what is the value to be created, for whom, and with what methodologies and tools can be tricky, and delivering it to a busy organization even more so.

The challenge is often made even more complex as some qualities of the organization reluctantly reveal themselves to outsiders. Such can be (but are not limited to):

• Local culture and discourses within the organization - often invisible to outsiders at first - that define do's, don'ts and taboos to be learned, understood, and reasoned with

• Properties and problems that emerge as the interactions with and between the different parts of the organization unfold (what we call emergent properties)

• Politics

• Resistance to change

As a digital collaboration tools consultant, you have to maintain a balance between taking into account all of the above experience and keeping an optimistic and open minded approach to serving a new organization.

We hope that the description of patterns found here can help all stakeholders - both organizations and the digital collaboration consultants who aid them - with a perspective on generalized strategies and tactics that can facilitate or complicate the course of supporting the organization and its stakeholders with digital collaboration methodologies and tools.

Atlas Patterns is our outlet for the good, the bad, and the ugly that we have seen and participated in that can hopefully inspire organizations and consultants alike to identify, discuss and tackle any blind spots and problems they might have prior to an implementation, or during operations (where continuous optimization should be taking place).