BBOM (Big Ball of Mud)

“This paper examines this most frequently deployed of software architectures: the BIG BALL OF MUD.” This is a very sad but true fact. I didn't even know the definition of the big ball of mud pattern when I read this line in the beginning of the paper, but I had a good idea where it was going.

I have to say have done all of the patterns discussed in this paper. Mostly in my undergrad education. The one that I used most was throwaway code. Even though it has been since drilled into my head “Don't use a prototype in the final product”, it is just so easy for a small school project (that is not on architecture) to use some throwaway prototype as a part of the final product.

Moving from academia to corporate america I have seen big ball of mud patterns used less. I definite agree with the author on how to avoid this is code reviews and refactoring. The product I am working on now has very strict guidelines on what you need to do when you are changing code. It must be code reviewed by at least one senior programmer and it has to be run through a static code analysis tool to check for “code smells”. Of course this wasn't always in place so the big ball of mus is still in there.