Artifact

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An Artifact is an identifiable work product created, acquired, used, modified, generated, exchanged, delivered, or preserved during an engineering, development, integration, deployment, operational, assurance, or governance activity.

An Artifact may be atomic or composite. A composite Artifact may contain, reference, package, or organize other Artifacts.

An Artifact may contain information, source content, compiled content, executable content, configuration content, model content, policy content, metadata, or evidence. Examples include:

• Source code
• Executable files
• Binary files

  • Software libraries
• Software dependencies
• Packages
• Archives
• Configuration files
• Infrastructure Configurations
• Infrastructure Blueprints
• Models
• Schemas
• Scripts
• Policy files
• Build specifications
• Container Images
• Machine Images
• Manifests
• Software Bills of Materials
• Reports
• Logs
• Test results
• Evidence

An Artifact remains distinct from the physical, logical, or conceptual subject that it describes, configures, instantiates, evaluates, or records. For example:

• An Infrastructure Configuration is an Artifact that represents the desired state of an Infrastructure Environment
• A Machine Image is an Artifact used to instantiate a computing environment
• A software library is an Artifact that provides reusable executable or linkable functionality
• A package is an Artifact that organizes one or more related Artifacts for identification, versioning, distribution, installation, or use
• A report is an Artifact that communicates selected information
• A test result is an Artifact that records the outcome of a verification activity
• Evidence is an Artifact retained to support an assertion, decision, or determination

An Artifact may be:

• Human-readable
• Machine-readable
• Executable
• Atomic
• Composite
• Version-controlled
• Generated
• Derived
• Signed
• Approved
• Released
• Delivered
• Archived

These characteristics do not apply to every Artifact and require a separate specification where relevant.

identifiable work product created, acquired, used, modified, generated, exchanged, delivered, or preserved during an activity

Dido Solutions, Inc. and Jackrabbit Consulting, Inc.

An Artifact may exist in physical, digital, or conceptual form.

An Artifact may contain or reference other Artifacts. A package, archive, container image, Machine Image, or bundle may therefore constitute a composite Artifact.

Identification of an Artifact does not by itself establish its revision, approval status, release status, provenance, authenticity, integrity, suitability, or retention status.

A Version-Controlled Artifact is an Artifact managed through a Version Control system.

The term does not require a particular file format, repository, storage medium, packaging mechanism, tool, or implementation technology.

A third-party software package containing an executable, software libraries, configuration files, dependency metadata, and a manifest is a composite Artifact.

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