Artifact (Icon Presentation)   An artifact is the specification of a piece of information that is utilized or created as part of a software development process or is produced as a product of a running system. An artifact is a classifier and as such can have instances, which are the development or runtime expressions (instances) of the artifact.

Explanation

Artifacts include a wide range of things, from the definition (specification) of pieces of programming source code, to model fragments, to word processor documents. They can also include such things as an error log produced as a result of a running system. It is the more general description or definition of the set to which artifact instances belong. Artifacts are said to be physical, although this can be misleading, as they are most typically software that can be identified by a file name. The file name can be the name of a file on a file system or a URL (universal resource locator.). The specification of any input or output from a software development process can be considered to be an artifact; in this way almost every other UML element can be considered to be an artifact or an instance of an artifact. The definition of an error log is an artifact; the actual error log produced by a system in operation is an artifact instance.

Related Entries

Artifact Instance  Graphically Similar An artifact instance is related to an artifact because it represents an actual example or instance of an artifact. While the artifact is a generic description of a set of things with related properties and behavior, the artifact instance is one of the members of the set.

Deployment Specification  Graphically Similar A deployment specification is related to an artifact because the deployment specification provides the specification for a set of properties that govern the execution of the artifact that is deployed on a node.