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An artifact is one of many kinds of ''tangible'' by-products produced during the development of software. Some artifacts (e.g.,
use case In software and systems engineering, the phrase use case is a polyseme with two senses: # A usage scenario for a piece of software; often used in the plural to suggest situations where a piece of software may be useful. # A potential scenario ...
s,
class diagram In software engineering, a class diagram in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a type of static structure diagram that describes the structure of a system by showing the system's classes, their attributes, operations (or methods), and the rela ...
s, and other
Unified Modeling Language The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system. The creation of UML was originally m ...
(UML) models, requirements and design documents) help describe the function, architecture, and design of software. Other artifacts are concerned with the process of development itself—such as project plans, business cases, and risk assessments. The term ''artifact'' in connection with software development is largely associated with specific development methods or processes e.g.,
Unified Process The Unified Software Development Process or Unified Process is an iterative and incremental software development process framework. The best-known and extensively documented refinement of the Unified Process is the Rational Unified Process (R ...
. This usage of the term may have originated with those methods. Build tools often refer to source code compiled for testing as an artifact, because the
executable In computing, executable code, an executable file, or an executable program, sometimes simply referred to as an executable or binary, causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions", as opposed to a data fil ...
is necessary to carrying out the testing plan. Without the executable to test, the testing plan artifact is limited to non-execution based testing. In non-execution based testing, the artifacts are the walkthroughs, inspections and correctness proofs. On the other hand, execution based testing requires at minimum two artifacts: a test suite and the executable. ''Artifact'' occasionally may refer to the released code (in the case of a code library) or released executable (in the case of a program) produced, but more commonly an artifact is the byproduct of software development rather than the product itself. Open source code libraries often contain a testing harness to allow contributors to ensure their changes do not cause regression bugs in the code library. Much of what are considered artifacts is software documentation. In
end-user development End-user development (EUD) or end-user programming (EUP) refers to activities and tools that allow end-users – people who are not professional software developers – to program computers. People who are not professional developers can use EUD ...
an artifact is either an application or a complex data object that is created by an end-user without the need to know a general programming language. Artifacts describe automated behavior or control sequences, such as database requests or grammar rules,H. Lieberman, B. A. Nardi, and D. Wright. Grammex: Defining grammars by example. In ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Summary, Demonstrations; CHI 1998), Los Angeles, California, U.S., pp. 11–12. ACM Press, Apr. 1998. or
user-generated content User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...
. Artifacts vary in their maintainability. Maintainability is primarily affected by the role the artifact fulfills. The role can be either practical or symbolic. In the earliest stages of software development, artifacts may be created by the design team to serve a symbolic role to show the project sponsor how serious the contractor is about meeting the project's needs. Symbolic artifacts often convey information poorly, but are impressive-looking. Symbolic enhance understanding. Generally speaking, Illuminated Scrolls are also considered unmaintainable due to the diligence it requires to preserve the symbolic quality. For this reason, once Illuminated Scrolls are shown to the project sponsor and approved, they are replaced by artifacts which serve a practical role. Practical artifacts usually need to be maintained throughout the project lifecycle, and, as such, are generally highly maintainable. Artifacts are significant from a
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. T ...
perspective as deliverables. The deliverables of a software project are likely to be the same as its artifacts with the addition of the software itself. The sense of artifacts as byproducts is similar to the use of the term '' artifact'' in science to refer to something that arises from the process in hand rather than the issue itself, i.e., a result of interest that stems from the means rather than the end. To collect, organize and manage artifacts, a Software development folder may be utilized. // POST: api/Todo ttpPost public async Task> PostTodoItem(TodoItem item)


See also

* Artifact (UML) * Software development folder


References


Further reading

* Per Kroll & Philippe Kruchten (2003). ''The Rational Unified Process Made Easy: A Practitioner's Guide to the RUP''. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Artifact (Software Development) Software development