Technical debt, commonly referred to as code debt, is the implied cost of additional rework brought on by opting for a quick (limited) fix instead of a more effective strategy that would require more time.
Not all technical debt is detrimental. Every software development project involves it since it is hard to avoid making trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality. It builds up when development teams take too many shortcuts to hasten the delivery of a feature or piece of software.
Trying to finish a project as swiftly as possible sometimes results in issues that need to be rectified later. It assesses the expense of redesigning a solution due to selecting a simple yet constrained one. The processes, platforms, and IT operations teams that power fundamental business operations like production, order fulfillment, shipping, and customer service may also be affected beyond development teams. The most significant effect is that it makes it harder for businesses to compete and innovate.
Technical debt is one of those things that is difficult to recognize and manage and much harder to avoid, but it is necessary to combat.
Here are some concerns about technical debt:
What Causes Technical Debt?
You can anticipate a lot when creating a solution and spend a lot of time organizing your project or polishing your code. But occasionally, a few things happen that are beyond your control and can result in technical debt:
Timing: Due to the pressure to produce on a shorter timetable, development teams frequently offer applications that are incomplete or lack essential features. To get to market faster, development teams may sacrifice performance and quality.
Constant change: Even fully functional apps that are finished on time and delivered to the market may need to be updated when they are. IT leaders face continual difficulties due to rising customer demands, new market opportunities, new cyber risks, and developer turnover.
Obsolete technology: This technology is no longer supported or supported only intermittently, and creating modern apps often requires several coding languages, developer frameworks, and libraries. Python today might become Visual Basic tomorrow.
What are the types of Technical Debt?
The “Technical Debt Quadrant” by Martin Fowler helps address this query. This quadrant divides technical debt into different categories based on aim and context. Technical debt is viewed from this quadrant as follows:
Prudent and deliberate: This occurs when a decision is made despite the team’s awareness that it would result in tech debt. But unlike reckless debt, in this situation, the choice is made after carefully considering all the implications.
Reckless and deliberate: This occurs when a team prioritizes speed over quality and proceeds with a decision, knowing it will result in technical debt.
Prudent and inadvertent: When a skilled team follows best practices during software development yet unintentionally creates a technical debt due to hidden coding errors, this is known as inadvertent and prudent technological debt. Due to their expertise, the team can later identify and pay the technical debt.
Reckless and inadvertent: The worst kind of debt is inadvertent and reckless technical debt. It occurs when the team needs more experience but implements a solution blindly without recognizing they are incurring debt.
What are some examples of technical debt?
Technical debt occurs in different ways, but here are four examples:
Poor or nonexistent technical documentation: This is frequently the cause of technical debt, particularly regarding infrastructure and project code. Particularly for projects with a limited budget, technical documentation is easy to overlook or undervalue. But bringing in more technical writers won’t solve the problem of documentation-based technical debt. Organizations ought to automate the documentation process in their development workflows. Managers must also uphold employee responsibility for role-related documents.
Inadequate software testing: Testing software is another easy shortcut with a bad outcome. Such technical debt is typical in businesses that don’t support quality assurance but still need to adopt DevOps, which offers automated testing possibilities.
Low-quality software code: Technical debt that is readily obvious is caused by subpar software. Several factors, including the following, can cause poor code quality:
- Developers are impatient to employ the newest tools even though the project does not require the technology.
- Ad hoc or nonexistent developer onboarding and training.
- Absence of developers’ specified coding standards.
- Time constraints lead to improper scheduling or the need for developers to redo programming that was outsourced. These may cause technical debt to reach alarming rates.
IT leadership with inadequate tools: People contribute to technical debt through ineffective IT leadership. Cloud and containerization trends are evolving quickly and may be beyond the comprehension of customers and executive teams. Organizations frequently create technical debt when they use excessive tools or decide on things they need help understanding.
How can technical debt be reduced or managed?
Discussing technical debt requires balancing time, quality, and expense. But keep in mind the software development team’s governance structure, toolkit, and way of thinking. In this equation, finding the appropriate mixture is critical. In addition, though not exclusively, the right technology can be helpful.
The following are effective techniques for managing technical debt in software development:
Utilize Resources: Without software development companies’ necessary resources and time commitment, technical debt management would never be possible. Instead of waiting until something breaks to address concerns about technical debt, CRM development firms should allocate time and resources as part of the normal process.
Utilize better data: The CIOs (senior technology executives inside a business) require access to better data to reduce the technical debt affecting software applications. Many CIOs use cutting-edge tools like AI to analyze codes, spot abnormalities, and get a detailed view of the software quality that powers their companies.
Manage a knowledge base: It’s crucial to keep documentation updated throughout the development process to make the “repayment” of technical debt easier. Such digital documentation consists of a knowledge repository where team members can exchange different kinds of content, one of the many advantages of holding on to and claiming information.
Redefine Software Development Strategy: Redefining the software development strategy is the best way to handle technical debt. It involves examining the initial planning and development strategy, finding any weak points that led the software development team to incur technical debt, and filling in the gaps. The approach entails regular meetings with stakeholders and developers, the introduction of new code standards, and the creation of a productive system for managing technical debt.
Change in Organizational Culture: It will be easier to plan to manage the workflow and create realistic deadlines for projects when teams have an open organizational culture where they can discuss the obstacles they face in accomplishing their goals.
A competent firm would quickly recognize the red flag warnings of technical debt because it is a short-term debt intentionally taken on within a project and can even be budgeted for in some circumstances. So extra effort should be taken to control technical debt every month, and it is also best for firms to incorporate it into their culture.