Copyright © 2012-2014 by Mark J. Sebern Software Engineering Process I SE-2800-07 Technical debt.

Copyright © 2012-2014 by Mark J. Sebern

Software Engineering

Process ISE-2800-07

Technical debt


Technical Debt• What is debt (in a financial sense)?

• Principal, interest, payments, compounding

• What’s the basic idea of “technical debt”?

• Is “debt” (always? ever?) a bad thing?

• Is “debt” (always? ever?) a good thing?


Kinds of Technical Debt

• Unfit (bad) design

• Defects

• Insufficient test coverage

• Excessive manual testing

• Poor integration and release management

• Lack of platform experience

• Other kinds?

Briefly, define each kind


Types of Technical Debt

• How do the following types differ?

• Naive technical debt

• Unavoidable technical debt

• Strategic technical debt


Consequences of Technical Debt

Unpredictable tipping point

Increased delivery

time

Significant # of

defects

Rising development & support costs

Product atrophy

Decreased

predictability

Under-performan

ce

Universal frustration

Decreased customer

satisfaction


Causes ofTechnical Debt

Deadline pressure

False “acceleratio

n”

Decreased verificatio

n

Cumulative debt effects (decreasing

velocity)


Managing Technical Debt

Managing debt accrual

Making debt visible

Servicing the debt




Making debt visible

Servicing the debt

Good technical practices

Strong “done” definition

Understanding of debt economics (delay vs repayment costs)



Making debt visible

Servicing the debt





Don’t forget that debt bears interest!




Making debt visible

Servicing the debt


Visibility at the business level

(balance sheet)


Visibility at the technical level (defects, PBIs, cards)





Making debt visible

Servicing the debt


Visibility at the business level

(balance sheet)

Deciding whether to repay


Visibility at the technical level (defects, PBIs, cards)

Repay when found,

incrementally, high-interest first


Repay while producing value

(avoid balloon payments)


Review

• Types of technical debt• Consequences• Managing technical debt

Copyright © 2012-2014 by Mark J. Sebern Software Engineering Process I SE-2800-07 Technical debt.

Documents

Transcript of Copyright © 2012-2014 by Mark J. Sebern Software Engineering Process I SE-2800-07 Technical debt.