Martin Fowler

I launched martinfowler.com as a space to showcase my own writings, starting with articles I had created for various reasons. With the rise of blogging in the early 2000s, I was inspired to start the bliki in 2003, allowing for a more casual style of writing. As the website gained traction, I realized it could be a platform to give others a chance to share their work. Consequently, I've gradually included more guest publications. I carefully review each submission before it's published, often providing significant developmental editing, which results in a lower publication frequency. However, I prioritize quality over quantity in the articles shared here. The topics I feature span a wide range of software development. Most of the contributors share my philosophy that values agile methods and emphasizes the importance of technical skills for their effectiveness. While many authors are current or former colleagues of mine from Thoughtworks, that's not a strict requirement. I typically consider submissions from people I know, though I may accept articles from others who come recommended by trusted contacts.

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My favorite musical discoveries of 2024

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.
My 2024 thoughts on the state of social media

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.
Using the Strangler Fig with Mobile Apps

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.
bliki: Cycle Time

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.
Rewriting Strangler Fig

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.
The LMAX Architecture

Aug 16, 2024 | martinfowler.com | Martin Fowler

The Business Logic Processor takes input messages sequentially (in the form of a method invocation), runs business logic on it, and emits output events. It operates entirely in-memory, there is no database or other persistent store. Keeping all data in-memory has two important benefits. Firstly it's fast - there's no database to provide slow IO to access, nor is there any transactional behavior to execute since all the processing is done sequentially.
Refresh of the PoEAA catalog page

Jul 31, 2024 | martinfowler.com | Martin Fowler

From time to time I take a look at my site analytics to see how much traffic various bits of this site get. When doing this I saw that I continue to get a lot of traffic to the Catalog of Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture. I put this together not long after writing the book, and it’s rather minimal. Since it still gets traffic I felt it was time for some sprucing up. The content is the same, summaries of the patterns in the book.
Instead of restricting AI and algorithms, make them explainable

Jul 30, 2024 | martinfowler.com | Martin Fowler

The steady increase in deployment of AI tools has led a lot of people concerned about how software makes decisions that affect our lives. In one example, its about "algorithmic" feeds in social media that promote posts that drive engagement. A more serious impact can come from business decisions, such as how much premium to charge in car insurance. This can extend to affecting legal decisions, such as suggesting sentencing guidelines to judges.
bliki: Shu Ha Ri

Jun 6, 2024 | martinfowler.com | Martin Fowler

Shu-Ha-Ri is a way of thinking about how you learn a technique. The name comes from Japanese martial arts (particularly Aikido), and Alistair Cockburn introduced it as a way of thinking about learning techniques and methodologies for software development. The idea is that a person passes through three stages of gaining knowledge:Shu: In this beginning stage students follow the teachings of one master precisely.
Using Footnotes

May 22, 2024 | martinfowler.com | Martin Fowler

Last week I added a small feature to this website, changing the way it renders footnotes. That prompted me to write this quick note about how I use footnotes, and how that influences the best way to render them. In my early years of writing, I avoided using footnotes. My general view was that if it was important enough to worth writing about, it should make its way into the main text, otherwise it should be discarded.