Pete on Software
Pete Shearer - Ohio, CTO at RxBridge | about.me
IT Bartender – Let's talk about "the business", without the politics for a change …
Description: Pete on Software -
Throughout my career in software, I have learned that technical debt is not just an unavoidable consequence of software development, but a necessary part of it. To innovate and grow, sometimes we need to make strategic decisions that trade what I often term “the practical for the perfect”. However, if you never pay it down, technical debt can accumulate and become a barrier to progress. Here are some effective strategies that I’ve found in order to manage technical debt.
The first step in managing technical debt is acknowledging its existence. It’s crucial to keep an open dialog about it within your team and make it part of the development process. Technical debt needs to be tracked work items in whatever system you work from (Jira, Trello, etc). Whatever you do, these decisions cannot just become “tribal knowledge” that can get lost with time. It should be documented what debt you incurred – and why – as well as what changes are needed when time is allotted.
All debts are not created equal. Some can cripple your progress and make your system impossible to change, while others are just a little annoying. Therefore, prioritizing which debts to pay first is essential. Just like paying of credit card debt usually involves some classification of interest rate, balance, etc, you should create a classification to rate and prioritize your technical debt across metrics that are valuable to you and your organization.
Pete on Software
Pete Shearer - Ohio, CTO at RxBridge | about.me
IT Bartender – Let's talk about "the business", without the politics for a change …