From Six Months of Nothing to Shipping in Weeks
Make legacy PHP codebases changeable without rewrites. Practical patterns from 7 years consulting 100+ teams. Two perspectives, zero dogma. €0+.
A development team hadn't shipped a single feature in six months. Controllers with 2,000-line methods. Session arrays passed between incompatible structures. A codebase everyone feared to touch.
25 days later, they were shipping again.
This wasn't magic. It was patterns that work.
"Test what matters, when it matters"
"Test first, to design interfaces"
"Stateless code has nowhere to hide bugs."
Tested across 7 years of consulting work
25x traffic spikes without drama
8 years at Frontastic, multiple pivots, no rewrites
First TDD library in the PHP ecosystem and contributed to many projects
What Makes This Different
Patterns that saved actual teams from actual disasters
Two perspectives (library dev vs product dev) for every decision
Most of this is about fixing legacy code that earns money
Write testable code. Test what matters when it matters.
Choose Your Bundle
Reader
- Book in all formats
- PDF, EPUB, HTML
Practitioner
- Everything in Reader, plus:
- All code examples
- Runnable scenarios
Architect
- Everything in Practitioner, plus:
- AI integration files
- agent.md for each style
- Review/refactor/testing prompts
All bundles can be adjusted to €0. Pay what feels right for your situation.
Two Perspectives, One Goal
Paula
"I build libraries. My code needs interfaces, extension points, comprehensive tests. When I ship, it must be right—I can't break other people's code."
Peter
"I build products. I control all the code. I can change anything. I write testable code, but only test what matters. Speed over speculation."
Both are right. Context determines which approach fits.
This book shows you when to use each.
Paula's Context
- Open source libraries
- Frameworks
- External dependencies
The Middle
- Stable APIs
- Core platform code
- Team shared libraries
Peter's Context
- Early stage products
- Full code control
- Fast pivots needed
What You'll Learn
When Building Libraries
- Extract interfaces early
- Comprehensive type safety
- TDD for discovering clean APIs
- Documentation that lasts
When Building Products
- Keep it simple until proven
- Add tests when it matters
- Refactor when you need to change
- Trust your team to read code
Always
- Minimize side effects
- Push effects to edges
- Make code testable (not tested)
- Write changeable code
Modern Bonus: AI-Ready Code
The patterns in this book produce code that AI tools understand naturally. As a bonus, the Architect bundle includes:
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, or any LLM that respects context.
"These help onboard new devs—human or AI."
"I use them for quick reviews before commits."
Proven in Production
Consulted over 7 years
- Pattern: Controllers with 2,000-line methods
- Fix: 25 days to shippable code
- Result: Teams shipping again in weeks
At Frontastic (CTO → exit)
- Multiple product pivots
- Zero "we need to rewrite" moments
- 25x traffic spike handled without drama
"PHP was never the bottleneck. It was always databases, external services, third-party APIs."
About Kore Nordmann
Co-created PHPUnit with Sebastian Bergmann and Derick Rethans.
Consulted with 100+ development teams, turning unmaintainable codebases into shipping machines.
Served as CTO at Frontastic through acquisition, proving these patterns scale to exit.