Being Smart with Debt: Tactical Tools for Technical Debt

We often mistakenly assume that things should always be done the "right way" 100% of the time. Not so. There are times to choose an inferior implementation and take on technical debt. The key is being aware of when it's time to take on technical debt, communicating it clearly to the whole team, and having a plan in place to start making payments.

Transcript

1. Being Smart With Debt
   Jess Martin
   

   View Slide

2. SWEET BIKE
   

   View Slide

3. Rs100,000 @ 15% interest
   Interest = Rs1,250 / month
   Bike = Rs100,000
   You make Rs20,000 / month
   Rs2,000 left after living expenses
   Rs1,250 / month is just your interest payment
   You have Rs750 / month
   Invest or Pay against principal?
   

   View Slide

4. The Right Way™ The Quick & Dirty Way
   

   View Slide

5. The Quick & Dirty Way
   Technical Debt
   

   View Slide

6. Technical Debt
   Harder to make changes
   Harder to understand
   Harder to test
   DEBT SLOWS YOU DOWN
   

   View Slide

7. “If  the  debt  grows  large  enough,  eventually  the  company  will  spend  more  on  
   servicing  its  debt  than  it  invests  in  increasing  the  value  of  its  other  assets.”  
   -­‐  Steve  McConnell
   Debt for Business Types
   Time
   Feature
   X
   Feature
   X
   w
   / debt
   Cost of
   servicing debt
   

   View Slide

8. Types of Technical Debt
   Code base
   Platform/Architecture
   Build & Development Environment
   Test Automation
   

   View Slide

9. http://www.slideshare.net/LeanDog/the-technical-debt-trap-michael-doc-norton
   Technical debt is NOT a license
   to write crappy, untested code
   with the intention of fixing it later.
   If your code sucks,
   it WILL NOT pass code review.
   

   View Slide

10. Make Regular
    Payments Against
    the Principal
    But how?
    Clearly, we need to...
    

    View Slide

11. 1. Document debt when discovered
    2. Decide what debt to pay down
    3. Pay it down
    

    View Slide

12. Document
    Tech
    Debt
    Doc
    Version controlled
    In the repo, near the code
    Structured
    Updated frequently
    Making payments regularly!
    

    View Slide

13. Document
    Tech
    Debt
    Doc
    

    View Slide

14. Tech
    Debt
    Doc
    Document
    Title
    Date added
    Description
    Who added
    Rating
    

    View Slide

15. Rating: How does it make you feel?
    Document
    

    View Slide

16. Decide
    Tech
    Debt
    Meeting
    Regular (weekly or bi-weekly)
    Has an owner
    Short (because meetings suck)
    Updates the tech debt doc
    Making payments regularly!
    

    View Slide

17. Got it!
    Decide
    I’m on it!
    Uhhh.. ok.
    

    View Slide

18. Claim it
    Decide
    Accountability FTW
    

    View Slide

19. Pay it down
    Branch
    Code it up
    Pull request
    Code review
    QA
    Update the doc
    Merge it
    (if it’s big, bring it up in sprint planning as a story card)
    

    View Slide

20. Don’t wait to make things better.
    Make things better today.
    Leave code cleaner than when you found it.
    Document technical debt.
    

    View Slide

21. Or better yet...
    JUST FIX IT RIGHT NOW
    

    View Slide

22. Where do we have technical debt?
    Code base
    Platform/Architecture
    Build & Development Environment
    Test Automation
    

    View Slide

23. Resources
    http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/02/paying-down-your-technical-debt.html
    http://scrumalliance.org/articles/451-technical-debt-for-pms
    http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebt.html
    http://martinfowler.com/bliki/DesignStaminaHypothesis.html
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqeJFYwnkjE
    http://blogs.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2007/11/01/technical-debt-2.aspx
    http://www.slideshare.net/LeanDog/the-technical-debt-trap-michael-doc-norton
    

    View Slide