Business Software Is HardWhy is writing business software so hard? A series of essays.https://businesssoftwareishard.com/Fifteen hundred classes and no visible shapehttps://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/fifteen-hundred-classes-and-no-visible-shape/https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/fifteen-hundred-classes-and-no-visible-shape/Doing everything right produced fifteen hundred classes, fifty packages, and a two-week change to add one column.Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTBetween deployment and datahttps://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/between-deployment-and-data/https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/between-deployment-and-data/We have durable ways to draw where software runs and what it remembers, and only temporary ways to draw what happens in between.Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTDrawing the transactionhttps://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/drawing-the-transaction/https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/drawing-the-transaction/The transaction is a design object we use constantly and almost never draw.Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTYeah, but does it work?https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/yeah-but-does-it-work/https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/yeah-but-does-it-work/What the Test Pyramid stopped telling us about business software.Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy does it only fail in production?https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/why-does-it-only-fail-in-production/https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/why-does-it-only-fail-in-production/Why transaction bugs look intermittent, and why hiding the transaction makes them harder to understand.Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy does modularity stop at the database?https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/why-does-modularity-stop-at-the-database/https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/why-does-modularity-stop-at-the-database/If information hiding matters in code, why do we so often expose the entire relational representation underneath it?Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy can't I build a simple business screen on my own any more?https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/why-cant-i-build-a-simple-business-screen-on-my-own-any-more/https://businesssoftwareishard.com/essays/why-cant-i-build-a-simple-business-screen-on-my-own-any-more/What did we trade away when rapid application development became web development?Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT