Technical Debt - How not to ignore it
Technical debt - we all seem to have it. So how bad is it? Is it growing or shrinking? Are we talking about it? Are we doing anything about it?
Technical debt is primarily a process problem. The technical problem is a symptom. The purpose of this session is to provide some practical tools and techniques for dealing with the process problem.
- “What’s the first thing to do if you find yourself stuck in a hole?”
- “Stop digging!”
We’ll cover the following areas:
- What is technical debt, why don’t we want it, and why do we still have it.
- Using velocity tracking as a tool for identifying and discussing technical debt issues.
- How to get non-techies to understand the problem and the solution.
- How to slow down in order to speed up.
- Specific techniques such as the test automation backlog.
- Using “definition of done” to help drive the desired behaviour.
Don’t expect a silver bullet - just tips and tricks to start taking control of the problem. I’m hoping you will share some ideas of your own!
I’ll start by talking and presenting some slides that illustrate the problem and some common patterns for dealing with it. I’m hoping this will trigger some discussions. Fairly sure it will, since just about everyone has this problem :o)