< Methods

Why?

Applying well-known design patterns improves the quality (and structure) of the designed software.

How?

Design patterns are documented solutions to frequently encountered problems or challenges in software engineering; they incorporate good software engineering principles. You should have an overview and active knowledge of the available patterns.

Ingredients

• An overview of patterns (book or websites).
• Time to absorb and understand patterns.
• A willingness to improve the quality of the designed software.

In practice

The book Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object- Oriented Software is regarded as the ‘bible’ of design patterns and is still widely used in corporate software engineering practice. However, there are many other, more up-to-date, books and online resources on the topic.

Phase(s) of use

In the following project phase(s) design pattern research can be used:

• Design
• Realisation