Configuration Bird Nest: Proposed OMC Anti-Pattern

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Alex Honor / January 23rd, 2008

Sometimes it is more interesting (and entertaining) to talk about things not to do. Let’s face it, we have more experience doing things wrong and learning the hard way. For these reasons I decided to begin the OMC’s Design Pattern work with Anti-Patterns.

I had a clear “favorite” in mind when it came to writing the first anti-pattern. I call it Configuration Bird Nest:

A network of circuitous indirections used to manage configuration and seem to intertwine like a labyrinth of straw in a bird nest. People often construct a bird nest in order to provide a consistent location for an external dependency.

The bird nest metaphor seems so apropos as it conveys the idea that the nest cradles something important, typically something crucial to supporting an application. The pattern is so typical and manifests itself inside so many IT disciplines, I look forward to hearing about its many forms.