Martin Fowler

Jan 9, 2025 | martinfowler.com | Martin Fowler

It's that time of year when I share my top six music discoveries of the year. As usual, I'd be surprised if many readers are familiar with more than a couple of these, and expect most readers to not know of any of them. It was also, as usual, very difficult to pick out only six. So I broke down and extended my selection to eight - after all I didn't sign any contracts for the album count.

Nov 13, 2024 | martinfowler.com | Martin Fowler

It's the time of year where I'm reflecting on the state of social media and my use of it. Two years ago, The Muskover occurred , and since then activity that used to be concentrated there has is now scattered across several social media networks. My reading and posting to social media has reflected that change. 1: Elon Musk's takeover of TwitterBlueskyI will start posting new article announcements to my Bluesky account. Bluesky has seen a steady rise over the last couple of years.

Oct 29, 2024 | martinfowler.com | Martin Fowler |Matthew Foster

A case study of gradually modernizing an established mobile applicationDuring a vacation in the rain forests of Queensland in 2001, we saw some strangler figs. These are vines that germinate in a nook of a tree. As it grows, it draws nutrients from the host tree until it reaches the ground to grow roots and the canopy to get sunlight. It can then become self-sustaining, and its original host tree may die leaving the fig as an echo of its shape.

Sep 4, 2024 | martinfowler.com | Martin Fowler

Cycle Time is a measure of how long it takes to get a new feature in a software system from idea to running in production. In Agile circles, we try to minimize cycle time. We do this by defining and implementing very small features and minimizing delays in the development process. Although the rough notion of cycle time, and the importance of reducing it, is common, there is a lot of variations on how cycle time is measured.

Aug 22, 2024 | martinfowler.com | Martin Fowler

Two decades ago, I posted that I found that the strangler fig plant was an interesting metaphor for the gradual replacement of a legacy system. I didn’t refer to the metaphor since, but meanwhile it grew a life of its own. Other people increasingly referred to the strangler fig approach to modernization, and traffic to that post steadily increased: currently it gets about 5000 page views a month, one of the more popular pages on this site.