Those of you that develop software (or have in their past) are probably used to the idea of using or referring to design patterns when implementing software. One of the things great about design patterns is that they explain the problem space, analyze it and describe generic solutions that can be implemented in your application language and/or runtime of choice (ie, they are technology agnostic). It especially helps avoid re-inventing solutions.

Working in various software operations groups over the years it eventually seemed obvious to me that there were nascent design patterns that could be applied generally and be a source of useful knowledge. You can read more about my reasoning at the dev2ops blog: http://dev2ops.blogspot.com/2008/01/where-are-design-patterns-for-software.html

To get the idea off the ground, I would like to propose using the wiki and forums facilities of the Open Management Consortium website. We could fit the discussion under an existing group like "Open Standards" or create a new community group like "Design Patterns". The wiki plays the role of catalog and repository while the forums can be useful for hammering out ideas.

The process of starting a repository of patterns should initially be informal to encourage participation. As time goes on and as the number of proposals increases, we can determine a means to catalog and measure consensus.

I am volunteering to get things started and drive the effort. I think we would all benefit from having a resource like this and it can only help improve consistency and even interoperability!

If you are interested, post a comment about it here.