''AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures, and Projects in Crisis'' is a book about
anti-pattern
An anti-pattern in software engineering, project management, and business processes is a common response to a recurring problem that is usually ineffective and risks being highly counterproductive. The term, coined in 1995 by computer programmer An ...
s: specific repeated practices in
software architecture
Software architecture is the fundamental structure of a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements and relations.
...
,
software design
Software design is the process by which an agent creates a specification of a software artifact intended to accomplish goals, using a set of primitive components and subject to constraints. Software design may refer to either "all the activity ...
and software
project management
Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. Th ...
that initially appear to be beneficial, but ultimately result in bad consequences that outweigh hoped-for advantages. This study covers several recurring problematic software-related patterns, the forces that inspire their repeated adoption, and proven-in-practice remedial actions, called
refactored solutions. The authors are
William Brown,
Raphael Malveau,
Skip McCormick, and
Tom Mowbray; with
Scott Thomas joining in on second and third books. Four of the five authors worked together at
Mitre Corporation in the late 1990s.
Sometimes referred to as an "Upstart Gang-Of-Four" the authors were frequently (and often unfavorably) compared to the original ''
Design Patterns
''Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software'' (1994) is a software engineering book describing software design patterns. The book was written by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides, with a foreword ...
'' by Gang of Four. This began with a favorable review and 1998 runner-up
Jolt Productivity Award given by ''Software Development'' magazine.
The controversy around this book, and the concept of an anti-pattern has been said to stem from a somewhat common misunderstanding that the authors were somehow opposed to
design pattern
A design pattern is the re-usable form of a solution to a design problem. The idea was introduced by the architect Christopher Alexander and has been adapted for various other disciplines, particularly software engineering. The " Gang of Four" b ...
s. However the authors explained within the book itself that they are big fans of design patterns; their objective was to build on the concept by providing constructive means for dealing with the frequent "patterns of failure" they had professionally dealt with.
Reviews
*
* Reviewed in ''C/C++ Users Journal'' July 1998 v16 n7 p63(2) by Marc Brian
July 1998/AntiPatterns - Refactoring Software, Architectures, and Projects in Crisis
References
{{reflist
External links
AntiPatterns.comA web site maintained by the authors with several patterns defined and other related articles.
Anti Patterns Bookat
WikiWikiWeb
The WikiWikiWeb is the first wiki, or user-editable website. It was launched on 25 March 1995 by programmer Ward Cunningham to accompany the Portland Pattern Repository website discussing software design patterns. The name ''WikiWikiWeb'' origi ...
Software engineering books
Software development books