Groups
It seems that just about everything I do eventually gets back to a group. I'm always organizing a group of people; a group of objects; a group of processes; a group of phases; a group of requirements that is eventually called a specification; a group of words that try to define something that doesn't have a decent, single word to call its own.

I just spent 3 months trying to group a bunch of processes together for a large healthcare insurer. Assembling the correct group was critical. Defining the boundaries across each group was also critical. Within the groups were smaller groups. Within those smaller groups were even smaller ones. Then there are the meta-groups that hold them all together.

People tend to be sloppy about the group definitions. Then, they look at you like you are too academic. But, in the end, your project gets shut down because there is too much ambiguity across the groups. Someday I'll understand what "academic" means outside of the reality I'm expected to corral into groups.

In the meanwhile I'll continue to define my groups. It's the only atomic pattern that makes sense to me.