What is technical debt - and how can you minimize it?
Technical debt can tear us apart.
If you’re going to build a software product, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the concept of technical debt - and understand how it can impact the future of your application. So what exactly is technical debt, and why should you care?
“Technical debt” is a term used in the software community that refers to the cost incurred when you employ software development practices that are less than ideal. It can appear in many forms: buggy code, poor documentation, design shortcomings, architectural deficiencies, database issues, security holes, underutilized technologies, and more.
Being smart about your approach to technical debt can potentially provide a significant competitive advantage. According to research firm Gartner, businesses that proactively manage their technical debt can achieve service delivery times more than 50% faster than competitors who don’t make such efforts.
Why does technical debt happen?
Technical debt can happen for a number of reasons, some inadvertent and others quite intentional. Understanding why it happens is essential to effectively mitigating it.
Sometimes technical debt is created by accident due to a lack of skill or experience. For example, a developer coding with an unfamiliar language or tool might struggle to cobble together a workable solution and in the process produce a code base that is difficult to understand or maintain.
In many cases, however, technical debt occurs when an experienced team is working against a tight deadline or on a limited budget and this forces them to cut corners in the development process in order to deliver the product on time or within budget.
How much technical debt is acceptable?
The amount of technical debt you’re going to incur is, to a large extent, a judgment call. If your software team has the right expertise to do the job well - and you give them adequate time and resources to do the best possible job - it’s reasonable to expect that you’ll have minimal technical debt in the end.
On the other hand, if you’re working with limited resources, or if you absolutely need to get your product to market in the shortest possible time, you might decide that taking on a higher level of technical debt is an acceptable tradeoff. Whatever you decide, just be sure that you understand the long-term consequences so you can make a wise and well-informed decision.
What steps can you take to minimize technical debt?
Various tactics can be used to reduce the extent and impact of technical debt when you build a software application. Here are some key things to keep in mind.
1. Prioritize well and keep it simple
Keeping things as simple as possible minimizes the number of places where technical debt can creep in. Start with building a simple, lovable, and complete product with the minimum features necessary to perform its job well. More features can always be added later.
Evaluate where quality is most important, and prioritize accordingly. For example, if bug-free code is a top priority, make sure that all of your code is expertly written according to best practices and thoroughly tested. If speed is essential, find out which technologies to invest in to make sure it is maximized. If security is of the utmost importance, put your resources there.
2. Find the right experts for the job
If you want to keep technical debt to a minimum, make sure you have professionals with the right skills and experience building your application. If you don’t have people in-house who understand the best practices, methodologies, tools, and technologies required for your project, find an experienced software team to partner with.
A first-rate professional software firm will be able to strategize, plan, design, develop, deploy, and maintain the type of software product you want to build in line with industry best practices. This applies not only to creating an excellent product technically, but also to documenting everything well, employing great project management techniques, and more.
3. Use Agile methodology and test everything
Agile project methodology is an iterative approach to software development in which the development process is broken down into short cycles or sprints. This method makes it easier to catch technical problems quickly, incorporate feedback effectively, and in many cases, get the product to market faster.
Frequent, repetitive testing is a key component of the Agile approach - and also an excellent way to reduce technical debt in the form of code errors. Implementing automated testing to the extent possible can be a great way to reduce the time and effort required for the testing process.
4. Plan how you’ll tackle your technical debt
With careful planning and mitigation tactics, you should be able to minimize the amount of technical debt you incur. However, even in a best case scenario, due to multiple factors outside of anyone’s control, a very small amount of technical debt is virtually inevitable.
Planning early on how you’ll address your technical debt down the road can significantly reduce any negative impact on your business operations. For example, if you know you’ll need to do additional code testing and refactoring, flesh out your documentation, or add additional security features, you can create a timeline and budget for addressing the issue - and keep a close eye on it in the meantime.
Minimize your debt risk
Looking to avoid the hassle and expense of remediating unnecessary technical debt? At Basecode we understand how technical debt happens - and how to proactively manage and mitigate it from Day 1. Contact us to find out more.