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Martin Fowler

What Martin Fowler thinks about design

@martin-fowler · 21 positions · 0 changes of mind

Chief scientist at Thoughtworks and author of Refactoring, Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture and Refactoring: Ruby Edition. His bliki at martinfowler.com has been the reference text on refactoring, testing and architecture for two decades.

Martin Fowler did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

7 dated positions, 2003 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Martin Fowler has said — not written or endorsed by them.

7 positions so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

  1. Our readingSkepticism about a new technology only works if it is total enough to be turned on itself, which is what forces you to stay curious.

    Their wordsMy skepticism has to be absolute and total, which means I have to be skeptical about my skepticism. And that requires that curiosity.

    ↗Martin Fowler & Kent Beck: Frameworks for reinventing software, again and againyoutube.com 5th of 20 in this recording

  3. Our readingPredictions that nobody will write code soon dodge the question of what code is: prompting a model is still producing something we will have to read and change.

    Their wordsI go to myself, "Well, yeah, but what do you mean by code?" Because that kind of implies nobody's writing anything. Well, we're at least doing some prompting. We're having some interaction with the genie. What's that going to be if it's not some form of code in some way? I think the nature of what code is is going to be quite possibly for a very radically different. But I think there is still a need to produce it and be able to interact with it in some way.

    ↗Martin Fowler & Kent Beck: Frameworks for reinventing software, again and againyoutube.com 12th of 20 in this recording

  4. 7 years earlier

  5. Our readingCruft is not carelessness: even the best teams inevitably create it, because the right design is only visible once the software has been built.

    Their wordseven the finest teams will inevitably create some cruft as they work

    ↗Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?martinfowler.com 3rd of 3 in this piece

  6. 4 years earlier

  7. Our readingSuccessful microservice systems almost always began as a monolith that grew too big, and systems built as microservices from scratch end up in serious trouble.

    Their wordsAlmost all the successful microservice stories have started with a monolith that got too big and was broken up

    ↗MonolithFirstmartinfowler.com 1st of 3 in this piece

  9. Our readingBuild a new application as a monolith first, even when you are confident it will eventually need microservices.

    Their wordsThis leads to a powerful argument for a monolith-first strategy, where you should build a new application as a monolith initially, even if you think it's likely that it will benefit from a microservices architecture later on.

    ↗MonolithFirstmartinfowler.com 2nd of 3 in this piece

  11. Our readingService boundaries cannot be got right at the start, and moving functionality between services is far harder than moving it inside a monolith.

    Their wordsBut even experienced architects working in familiar domains have great difficulty getting boundaries right at the beginning.

    ↗MonolithFirstmartinfowler.com 3rd of 3 in this piece

  12. 12 years earlier

  13. Our readingLines of code cannot measure productivity, because better-designed code is shorter.

    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 2nd of 2 in this piece