The Object-Oriented Thought Process, Fourth Edition

Antipatterns

Although a design pattern evolves from experiences in a positive manner, antipatterns can be thought of as collections of experiences that have gone awry. It is well documented that most software projects are ultimately deemed unsuccessful. In fact, as indicated in the article “Creating Chaos” by Johnny Johnson, fully one-third of all projects are cancelled outright. It would seem obvious that many of these failures are caused by poor design decisions.

The term antipattern derives from the fact that design patterns are created to proactively solve a specific type of problem. An antipattern, on the other hand, is a reaction to a problem and is gleaned from bad experiences. In short, whereas design patterns are based on solid design ...