In Computer Programs
The term was popularized in Brian Foote and Joseph Yoder's 1997 paper of the same name, which defines the term thus:
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A Big Ball of Mud is a haphazardly structured, sprawling, sloppy, duct-tape-and-baling-wire, spaghetti-code jungle. These systems show unmistakable signs of unregulated growth, and repeated, expedient repair. Information is shared promiscuously among distant elements of the system, often to the point where nearly all the important information becomes global or duplicated. The overall structure of the system may never have been well defined. If it was, it may have eroded beyond recognition. Programmers with a shred of architectural sensibility shun these quagmires. Only those who are unconcerned about architecture, and, perhaps, are comfortable with the inertia of the day-to-day chore of patching the holes in these failing dikes, are content to work on such systems. |
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—Brian Foote and Joseph Yoder, Big Ball of Mud. Fourth Conference on Patterns Languages of Programs (PLoP '97/EuroPLoP '97) Monticello, Illinois, September 1997 |
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"Big ball of mud" systems have usually been developed over a long period of time, with different individuals working on various pieces and parts. Systems developed by people with no formal architecture or programming training often fall into this pattern.
Foote and Yoder do not universally condemn "big ball of mud" programming, pointing out that this pattern is most prevalent because it works — at least at the moment it is developed. However, programs of this pattern become maintenance nightmares.
Programmers in control of a big ball of mud project are strongly encouraged to study it and to understand what it accomplishes, and to use this as a loose basis for a formal set of requirements for a well-designed system that could replace it. Technology shifts – such as client-server to web-based or file-based to database-based – may provide good reasons to start over from scratch.
Read more about this topic: Big Ball Of Mud
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