Fragments: June 2
Greg Wilson has noticed that lots of folks are using dodgy metrics (https://third-bit.com/2026/05/20/twelve-ways-to-be-wrong/) to figure out if AI tools are worth their costs. Would you measure
Martin Fowler
Master feed of news and updates from martinfowler.com
Fragments: May 27
At the GOTO Conference in Copenhagen in 2025, Kent Beck and I spent some time on stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii_rLjQfjp0&list=PLEx5khR4g7PINwOsYrkwz3lTTJUYoXC53) talking and answering
The test suite as a regression sensor
Birgitta Böckeler finishes her post on sensors for coding agents by examining the role of a test suite as a regression sensor, focusing on the role mutation testing can play. more…
The VibeSec Reckoning
Vibe coding has significantly accelerated software prototyping but AI agents frequently recommend insecure configurations, creating security problems. Gautam Koul, Lucian Moss, Neil
Bliki: Vibe Coding
Vibe coding is building a software application by prompting an LLM, telling it what to build, trying it out, prompting for changes - but without looking at any of the code that the LLM generates.
Three more static code analysis sensors
Birgitta Böckeler adds discussion of three more sensors for static code analysis, focusing on checking and enforcing better modularity. Computational sensors for dependency checks were
Maintainability sensors for coding agents
In her recent article about harness engineering for coding agent users, Birgitta Böckeler laid out a mental model for expanding a coding agent harness: a system of guides and sensors
Fragments: May 14
Last week I spent a day at a retreat that brought together several people working in software development to talk about the profession’s future with the rise of agentic programming. The event was
Bliki: Interrogatory LLM
When we need an LLM to perform a complex task, we often need to feed it a lot of context. Coming up with a design for a new feature requires descriptions of how we want the feature to appear to
What is Code
Increasingly humans delegate writing code to agents. Will there even be source code in the future? To wrestle with this question, we have to understand what code is. Unmesh Joshi sees
Fragments: May 5
Over the last couple of months Rahul Garg published a series of posts here on how to reduce the friction in AI-assisted programming (https://martinfowler.com/articles/reduce-friction-ai/). To make it
Bliki: Mythical Man Month
In the early 1960s, Fred Brooks managed the development of IBM's System/360 computer systems. After it was done he penned his thoughts in the book The Mythical Man-Month
Fragments: April 29
Chris Parsons has updated his guide on using AI to code (https://www.chrismdp.com/coding-with-ai/). This is his third update, what I like about it is that he gives a lot of concrete information about
Structured-Prompt-Driven Development (SPDD)
LLM programming assistants have demonstrated considerable value, but mostly with individual developers. The internal IT organization in Thoughtworks has been using them for their teams
Fragments: April 21
Last week Thoughtworks released the 34th volume of our Technology Radar (https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar). This radar is our biannual survey of our experience of the technology scene, highlighting
Fragments: April 14
I attended the first Pragmatic Summit early this year, and while there host Gergely Orosz interviewed Kent Beck and myself on stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZs8J1ZD0CE). The video runs for
Alan Turing play in Cambridge MA
Last night I saw Central Square Theater’s excellent production of Breaking the Code (https://www.centralsquaretheater.org/shows/breaking-the-code-2026/). It’s about Alan Turing, who made a
Fragments: April 9
I mostly link to written material here, but I’ve recently listened to two excellent podcasts that I can recommend. Anyone who regularly reads these fragments knows that I’m a big fan of Simon
Feedback Flywheel
Rahul Garg finishes his series on reducing the friction in AI-Assisted Development. He proposes a structured feedback practice that harvests learnings from AI sessions and feeds
Principles of Mechanical Sympathy
Modern hardware is remarkably fast, but software often fails to leverage it. Caer Sanders has found it valuable to guide his work with mechanical sympathy - the practice of creating