Object Mentor Blog: Business software is Messy and Ugly.

Business software is Messy and Ugly.

Uncle Bob — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:41:00 -0600

I was at a client recently. They are a successful startup who have gone through a huge growth spurt. Their software grew rapidly, through a significant hack-and-slash program. Now they have a mess, and it is slowing them way down. Defects are high. Unintended consequences of change are high. Productivity is low.

I spent two days advising them how to adopt TDD and Clean Code techniques to improve their code-base and their situation. We discussed strategies for gradual clean up, and the notion that big refactoring projects and big redesign projects have a high risk of failure. We talked about ways to clean things up over time, while incrementally insinuating tests into the existing code base.

During the sessions they told me of a software manager who is famed for having said:

“There’s a clean way to do this, and a quick-and-dirty way to do this. I want you to do it the quick-and-dirty way.”

The attitude engendered by this statement has spread throughout the company and has become a significant part of their culture. If hack-and-slash is what management wants, then that’s what they get! I spent a long time with these folks countering that attitude and trying to engender an attitude of craftsmanship and professionalism.

The developers responded to my message with enthusiasm. They want to do a good job (of course!) They just didn’t know they were authorized to do good work. They thought they had to make messes. But I told them that the only way to get things done quickly, and keep getting things done quickly, is to create the cleanest code they can, to work as well as possible, and keep the quality very high. I told them that quick-and-dirty is an oxymoron. Dirty always means slow.

On the last day of my visit the infamous manager (now the CTO) stopped into our conference room. We talked over the issues. He was constantly trying to find a quick way out. He was manipulative and cajoling. “What if we did this?” or “What if we did that?” He’d set up straw man after straw man, trying to convince his folks that there was a time and place for good code, but this was not it.

I wanted to hit him.

Then he made the dumbest, most profoundly irresponsible statement I’ve (all too often) heard come out of a CTOs mouth. He said:

“Business software is messy and ugly.”

No, it’s not! The rules can be complicated, arbitrary, and ad-hoc; but the code does not need to be messy and ugly. Indeed, the more arbitrary, complex, and ad-hoc the business rules are, the cleaner the code needs to be. You cannot manage the mess of the rules if they are contained by another mess! The only way to get a handle on the messy rules is to express them in the cleanest and clearest code you can.

In the end, he backed down. At least while I was there. But I have no doubt he’ll continue his manipulations. I hope the developers have the will to resist.

One of the developers asked the question point blank: “What do you do when your managers tell you to make a mess?” I responded: “You don’t take it. Behave like a doctor who’s hospital administrator has just told him that hand-washing is too expensive, and he should stop doing it.”

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"Business software is Messy and Ugly." by iNdianapOlis HvAc

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 09:33:17 -0600

I worked for a company in Indiana who had a similar issue, it was a coding havoc, the best thing to do is convince them to do a redesign—THE RIGHT WAY, in the long run it will pay off. If they say no, wait til it crumbles, then say “I told you so.” ;)

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