On the appropriate rationale for using design patterns and pattern documentation

Abstract

Software design patterns are proven solutions for recurring design problems. Decisions on the use of a pattern in a software design form a specific but important class of design decisions. However, despite their importance, these design decisions are often mistaken and rarely documented. In our survey, about 90% of the participants confirmed to have experienced such problems. Therefore, we propose an approach that supports the appropriate use of design patterns and documentation of such decisions. The main idea is to create a pattern catalogue, where a pattern (as part of its catalogue entry) is annotated with general questions on the appropriateness of the use of the pattern. The envisioned benefits of this approach are a more appropriate use of design patterns, and documented design decisions on the use of patterns with positive effects on evolution. In this paper, we present the enriched pattern catalogue, and results of a survey with 21 software engineers as a validation of some entries of the pattern catalogue.