About

An artifact can refer to:

  • a by-product produced during the development of software (Generally a archive of code for deployment such as a jar for Java).
  • an application or an object that is created by an end-user without the knowledge of a general programming language.

An artifact is also known as:

Storage

They are usually stored in a repository

Example

By Product

Functional/Definition artifacts:

  • use cases,
  • class diagrams,
  • UML models,
  • requirements and design documents

Process of development artifacts:

  • project plans,
  • business cases,
  • and risk assessments.

End-User artifact

  • Excel Sheet

Sign

Example with maven and the gpg plugin 

<plugin>
	<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
	<artifactId>maven-gpg-plugin</artifactId>
	<version>1.6</version>
	<executions>
		<execution>
			<id>sign-artifacts</id>
			<phase>verify</phase>
			<goals>
				<goal>sign</goal>
			</goals>
			<configuration>
			<keyname>${gpg.keyname}</keyname>
			<passphraseServerId>${gpg.keyname}</passphraseServerId>
			</configuration>
		</execution>
	</executions>
</plugin>

Documentation / Reference