Design pattern components – artifacts

Artifacts are important components of design patterns as they represent the tangible products of the design process. Artifacts can be documents, models, diagrams, code, tests, or any other output that helps to communicate, document, or implement the design. Artifacts can also be classified according to the design pattern components they belong to – participants, collaborations, consequences, and implementations. To give you an idea of how this classification works, let’s take a closer look at these components:

• Participants are the elements that make up a design pattern, such as classes, objects, interfaces, or roles. Participants define the structure and behavior of the pattern. Artifacts that belong to this component are usually diagrams or code that show the relationships and interactions between the participants. In this case, as shown in the following figure, a class diagram can show the inheritance and association...