Avoiding Legacy with Deployment Automation and Infrastructure-as-Code

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

Learning from ‘Working Effectively with Legacy Code’ by Michael C. Feathers

Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael C. Feathers is a classic software development text. Not only is it still completely relevant when working with code, seven years after it was published, but also the approaches it advocates at the source code level are becoming essential to apply at the component and system integration levels too as our software systems become more complicated and polyglot, and we learn to fully automate our deployments and treat our infrastructure as code.

Book cover: Working Effectively with Legacy Code

For an overview of the book itself, read my review of ‘Legacy Code’ on Amazon.co.uk. I describe the different sections and how each is useful in a particular context. The rest of this article will focus on other aspects of Legacy Code, particularly the ‘why’ of changing code, and the implications for Continuous Delivery, infrastructure-as-code, and deployment automation.

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Using LogParser and Log Replay to Bootstrap Load Test Scripts

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

In a previous post I mentioned how Microsoft LogParser can be used to discover HTTP endpoints in legacy applications. Another great use for LogParser is to generate files to drive load test scripts.

Loaded truck by jcurtis4082 (Flickr)

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Endpoint Discovery using Microsoft LogParser

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

A few years ago, I was working on a project for a UK client who needed to replace or rewrite a legacy inventory management  web application written in classic ASP. The problem: no documentation, and complicated, spaghetti source code with many apparently duplicate or redundant ASP files and ASMX web service endpoints.

Finger pointing by bhollar (Flickr)

Which ASP pages were actually in use? We had to find a way to limit our application migration efforts to  only those pages which were used by the application. A colleague at the time introduced me to what must be one of the best-kept secrets in the Windows developer world: Microsoft Log Parser.

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ThoughtWorks AWS Training in London

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

Just back from the ThoughtWorks AWS training in London at Wallace Space. Great day: good pace, with some excellent discussions and lots of learning.

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Agile Tools and the Importance of Physical Interaction

Posted on by Matthew Skelton (@matthewskelton)

There is in interesting discussion on Daniel Markham’s blog about the Tyranny of the Tools in relation to Agile software development. In a nutshell, “throwing so-called ‘Agile’ tools at development team does not make it Agile”; it’s the ways for thinking and learning which are truly important.

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