Patterns, XML and MDV platform, a case study

In this paper, we aim to study design patterns in the context of a software package called MDV (MetaData Visualisation). The development of this software was relatively fast-paced and performed by a team split into two physical locations for large part of the most active development period. The original design documents did not contain any overt use of design pattern methodology and all of the developers were not familiar with design patterns. We believe that analysing the design of such a software, starting from the original forces that drove the requirement specification, can provide a valuable insight into the general nature of patterns. We will also discuss ways to measure if the quality and productivity of further development of this kind of project could be improved by using pattern-based analysis of the existing software.