One of my favourite commentators on architecture has to be Grady Booch. His "Big dripping hairball" description sums up so many bits of software I've had the "pleasure" of working on. Don't get me wrong, some of this software is very successful by most peoples definition. They've often had lots of clients, seemed to mostly work all right, but what really amazes me is that it's often a complete mystery to anyone involved how they manage to work.
This strange phenomenon, where nobody can quite believe this "big dripping hairball" actually works, is usually accompanied by a few old hands who've either caused this beast to come into being or had a personal victory over this would be life stealer. These guys just love to recount they tails of woe, and take great pleasure in telling anyone that has to sort out this mess just how truly awful the situation actually is. Let them be, they are happy, as happy as pigs in muck. The truly courageous individuals do not wallow, they write some unit tests, and start removing bits of code one piece at a time.
This strange phenomenon, where nobody can quite believe this "big dripping hairball" actually works, is usually accompanied by a few old hands who've either caused this beast to come into being or had a personal victory over this would be life stealer. These guys just love to recount they tails of woe, and take great pleasure in telling anyone that has to sort out this mess just how truly awful the situation actually is. Let them be, they are happy, as happy as pigs in muck. The truly courageous individuals do not wallow, they write some unit tests, and start removing bits of code one piece at a time.
