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← People and their mental models

Martin Fowler's mental models

5 claims Martin Fowler made fit 4 mental models. Most often: When a measure becomes a target, Less, but better, Second-order thinking. Everything they said here.

Models they name

Their own words name the idea.

Trade-offs

Every choice gives something up, so name the cost; and check, because some trade-offs everyone assumes are not real.

Used by 60 others

The usual trade-off between quality and cost does not apply to software: high internal quality is the cheaper way to produce it.

  1. Martin Fowler Chief scientist at Thoughtworks and author of Refactoring With this article I'll explain that this trade-off does not apply to software - that high quality software is actually cheaper to produce. Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?martinfowler.com · 29 May 2019All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsWith this article I'll explain that this trade-off does not apply to software - that high quality software is actually cheaper to produce.

    ↗Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?martinfowler.com

    29 May 2019

Models we see in what they say

Our reading: their claim applies the idea without naming it. The claim is theirs; filing it here is ours.

When a measure becomes a target

Reward a number and people, or machines, will find ways to move the number without the thing it measured (Goodhart's law).

Used by 12 others

Making test coverage a target destroys it, because high coverage numbers are easy to reach with worthless tests.

  1. Martin Fowler Chief scientist at Thoughtworks and author of Refactoring If you make a certain level of coverage a target, people will try to attain it. The trouble is that high coverage numbers are too easy to reach with low quality testing. TestCoveragemartinfowler.com · 17 Apr 2012All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsIf you make a certain level of coverage a target, people will try to attain it. The trouble is that high coverage numbers are too easy to reach with low quality testing.

    ↗TestCoveragemartinfowler.com

    17 Apr 2012

Total test coverage is a warning sign rather than an achievement: it smells of tests written for the number.

  1. Martin Fowler Chief scientist at Thoughtworks and author of Refactoring I would be suspicious of anything like 100% - it would smell of someone writing tests to make the coverage numbers happy, but not thinking about what they are doing. TestCoveragemartinfowler.com · 17 Apr 2012All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsI would be suspicious of anything like 100% - it would smell of someone writing tests to make the coverage numbers happy, but not thinking about what they are doing.

    ↗TestCoveragemartinfowler.com

    17 Apr 2012

Less, but better

Find the essence and cut the rest; simplicity is hard work, not the absence of effort.

Used by 59 others

Lines of code cannot measure productivity, because better-designed code is shorter.

  1. Martin Fowler Chief scientist at Thoughtworks and author of Refactoring Any good developer knows that they can code the same stuff with huge variations in lines of code, furthermore code that's well designed and factored will be shorter because it eliminates the duplication. CannotMeasureProductivitymartinfowler.com · 29 Aug 2003All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsAny good developer knows that they can code the same stuff with huge variations in lines of code, furthermore code that's well designed and factored will be shorter because it eliminates the duplication.

    ↗CannotMeasureProductivitymartinfowler.com

    29 Aug 2003

Second-order thinking

Ask "and then what?": follow a decision past its first effect to the ones that come after.

Used by 86 others

Poor internal quality begins to slow a team down within a few weeks, so almost no project is short enough for cutting corners to pay off.

  1. Martin Fowler Chief scientist at Thoughtworks and author of Refactoring Developers find poor quality code significantly slows them down within a few weeks. Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?martinfowler.com · 29 May 2019All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsDevelopers find poor quality code significantly slows them down within a few weeks.

    ↗Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?martinfowler.com

    29 May 2019