The Orchestrator's Tax đź”—
Subagents get justified by time saved and parallel execution, but Rahul Garg explains that's not what matters most. Every token in the orc [...]
Martin Fowler
Posts
Why I’m Writing Rachel’s Ramblings 🔗
TL;DR I have ideas. I haven’t been writing them. That’s about to change. I promise… myself. I’ve been thinking a lot about talent. Actually, I’ve bee [...]
Fragments: July 21 đź”—
With this post, I’ll wrap up my notes from the second Future of Software Development Retreat. But before I do, I should note that the full Thoughtwor [...]
The Archaeologist’s Copilot 🔗
When people think of legacy modernization, most folks aren't imagining the target environment will be Java 8. But this was the challenge facing [...]
DSLs Enable Reliable Use of LLMs đź”—
LLMs generate code incredibly fast, but to ensure they generate exactly what is intended, they need clear boundaries. Abstractions and Dom [...]
Fragments: July 13 đź”—
Some more of my notes from Thoughtworks Future of Software Development Retreat. When we had our first retreat in Utah early this year, nobody had hear [...]
Experiences with local models for coding đź”—
Birgitta Böckeler now reports on her recent experiences trying local LLMs for coding. She compares them using two standard tasks, and trie [...]
Viability of local models for coding đź”—
Birgitta Böckeler recently spent some time trying out running local LLMs for some programming tasks. In this memo she outlines the factors that [...]
Fragments: July 6 đź”—
Last week, Thoughtworks ran a second Future of Software Development Retreat, this time in Europe. As with the previous event, I’ll be sharing some fra [...]
Fragments: June 16 đź”—
“Prag Dave” Thomas (co-author of the outstanding “Pragmatic Programmer”) has loved programming since he was young. Programming was how I could express [...]
Building Reliable Agentic AI Systems đź”—
One of the most interesting projects my colleagues have done with LLMs has been building a system with Bayer to allow pharmaceutical researchers [...]
Fragments: June 2 đź”—
Greg Wilson has noticed that lots of folks are using dodgy metrics to figure out if AI tools are worth their costs. Would you measure lines of code ge [...]
Fragments: May 27 đź”—
At the GOTO Conference in Copenhagen in 2025, Kent Beck and I spent some time on stage talking and answering questions from the audience - a format I [...]
The test suite as a regression sensor đź”—
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 VibeSec Reckoning đź”—
Vibe coding has significantly accelerated software prototyping but AI agents frequently recommend insecure configurations, creating security [...]
Bliki: Vibe Coding đź”—
Vibe coding is building a software application by prompting an LLM, telling it what to build, trying it out, prompting for changes - but without loo [...]
Three more static code analysis sensors đź”—
Birgitta Böckeler adds discussion of three more sensors for static code analysis, focusing on checking and enforcing better modularity. Co [...]
Maintainability sensors for coding agents đź”—
In her recent article about harness engineering for coding agent users, Birgitta Böckeler laid out a mental model for expanding a coding a [...]
Fragments: May 14 đź”—
Last week I spent a day at The Orchard Retreat, hosted by Mechanical Orchard. that brought together several people working in software development to [...]
Bliki: Interrogatory LLM đź”—
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 descr [...]
What is Code đź”—
Increasingly humans delegate writing code to agents. Will there even be source code in the future? To wrestle with this question, we have to [...]
Fragments: May 5 đź”—
Over the last couple of months Rahul Garg published a series of posts here on how to reduce the friction in AI-assisted programming. To make it easier [...]
Bliki: Mythical Man Month đź”—
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 T [...]
Fragments: April 29 đź”—
Chris Parsons has updated his guide on using AI to code. This is his third update, what I like about it is that he gives a lot of concrete information [...]
Structured-Prompt-Driven Development (SPDD) đź”—
LLM programming assistants have demonstrated considerable value, but mostly with individual developers. The internal IT organization in Th [...]
Fragments: April 21 đź”—
Last week Thoughtworks released the 34th volume of our Technology Radar. This radar is our biannual survey of our experience of the technology scene, [...]
Alan Turing play in Cambridge MA đź”—
Last night I saw Central Square Theater’s excellent production of Breaking the Code. It’s about Alan Turing, who made a monumental contribution to bot [...]
Feedback Flywheel đź”—
Rahul Garg finishes his series on reducing the friction in AI-Assisted Development. He proposes a structured feedback practice that harves [...]
Principles of Mechanical Sympathy đź”—
Modern hardware is remarkably fast, but software often fails to leverage it. Caer Sanders has found it valuable to guide their work with m [...]
Harness engineering for coding agent users đź”—
Last month Birgitta Böckeler wrote some initial thoughts about the recently developed notion of Harness Engineering. She's been researchin [...]