Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Technical Debt What is debt (in a financial sense)?
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern 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?
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern 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
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Types of Technical Debt How do the following types differ? Naive technical debt Unavoidable technical debt Strategic technical debt Give an example of each type
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Consequences of Technical Debt
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Consequences of Technical Debt Unpredictable tipping point Increased delivery time Significant # of defects Rising development & support costs Product atrophy Decreased predictability Under- performance Universal frustration (morale) Decreased customer satisfaction
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Causes of Technical Debt
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Causes of Technical Debt Deadline pressure False “acceleration” Decreased verification Cumulative debt effects (decreasing velocity)
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Managing Technical Debt Managing debt accrual Making debt visible Servicing the debt
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Managing Technical Debt Managing debt accrual Making debt visible Servicing the debt Good technical practices Strong “done” definition Understanding of debt economics (delay vs repayment costs)
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Managing debt accrual Making debt visible Servicing the debt Good technical practices Strong “done” definition Understanding of debt economics (delay vs repayment costs) Managing Technical Debt
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Managing Technical Debt Managing debt accrual Making debt visible Servicing the debt Good technical practices Visibility at the business level (balance sheet) Strong “done” definition Visibility at the technical level (defects, PBIs, cards) Understanding of debt economics (delay vs repayment costs)
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Making Technical Debt Visible Technical Debt Backlog? Feature Backlog
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Managing Technical Debt Managing debt accrual Making debt visible Servicing the debt Good technical practices Visibility at the business level (balance sheet) Deciding whether to repay Strong “done” definition Visibility at the technical level (defects, PBIs, cards) Repay when found, incrementally, high-interest first Understanding of debt economics (delay vs repayment costs) Technical Debt Items in Product Backlog? Repay while producing value (avoid balloon payments)
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern Servicing Technical Debt Sprint PBI’s/ActivitesTechnical Debt Backlog
Copyright © 2012 by Mark J. Sebern What Else?