Technical debt is often a negative aspect of software development projects that adversely affects the quality of the software and the productivity of the team. However, with the approach our team at Trustify Technology take, outlined in this article, you can begin to develop your own technology debt management strategy. And if you think your situation needs immediate help, consider getting in touch with Trustify Technology for our software development services.
With over 15 years of software development and IT consulting experience, many clients have asked us to take over projects with technology debt that their in-house team could not handle. And our experience with such projects suggests that technical debt can be managed with proper management and principles.
In this article, we share the different types of technical debt that exist and how we manage (or avoid) technical debt in projects outsourced to Trustify Technologies.
A Practical Guide to Managing Technical Debt
Trustify Technology’s guide to technical debt types
Quick Solutions vs. Clean Code: Managing the Trade-offs
Software development teams experience technical debt (or code debt) when they knowingly choose the easier solutions that may work temporarily but have to be refactored later. This may happen due to tight-deadline projects, such as taking advantage of early market opportunities to compete with a competitor or to showcase an idea with less financial risk.
Obviously, we don’t recommend this approach, whether you develop the software in-house or outsource it. The requirements for re-work later on will negatively affect the development team’s performance and also the software product evolution, introducing risks of missing deadlines and going over budgets. And if you delay resolving technical debt to deliver a new version of the product, things can get out of control very quickly. Last but not least, an app with lots of errors can drive away users who may have enjoyed it under different circumstances.
With this in mind, we’d like to offer a different approach for projects with tight deadlines, based on the Trustify technology’s experience with previous projects. You can choose to build an MVP with fewer functionalities, but still maintain a high quality level. To do this, hire a Business Analyst who is experienced in prioritizing features and providing effective solutions based on complex business requirements and market conditions. This approach allows Trustify Technologies to evolve the software product throughout the software development life-cycle, while enabling customer companies to generate revenue early in the project.
Dealing with Bugs: A Natural Aspect of Software Development
Unfortunately, no software is perfect. Low to moderate levels of defects are common in software development. It’s also not a serious bottleneck if it’s resolved and fixed in time and if the conditions are right, with fewer bugs and errors found, as the software product matures. For example, we always seek to remove up to 90% of defects or bugs before the software is released.
Managing Technical Debt by Updating Legacy Systems
Legacy software, which are often part of a company’s most critical systems (such as ERP or financial processing system), exhaust a company’s resources the most. Unfortunately, modernizing them is a big challenge because of the many risks involved. This is the reason why modernization was delayed and thus, more and more technical debts are incurred.
Based on Trustify technology’s experience, modernization requires in-depth business and technical knowledge as well as taking time which simply is not readily available in-house. In this case, hiring a trusted software development company can help you get out of technical debt faster because they can provide a non-standard but cost-effective solution.
Struggling with Technical Debt? Here’s How to Manage It
How to manage technical debt: Trustify Technology’s recommendations
Having trouble managing professional debt?
Trustify Technology Consultants are ready to help you identify sources of technical debt and develop a comprehensive plan for effective technical debt management.
Using Technical Feedback to Overcome Technical Debt
We would like to introduce the approach we take at Trustify Technology for effective technical debt management. We recommend this approach for software projects of any size and level of complexity to maximize efficiency and minimize technical debt.
To begin, our project managers and technical leaders work to minimize technical debt and then assess it to ensure the project is moving in the right direction. We create a work environment ready for technical debt elimination. It is based on the followings:
- We recognize and account technical-debt related tasks on the same backlog as new features development tasks. Here, we do not recommend using other separate issues/tasks tracking software because the technical debt tasks can be overlooked and it gets more difficult to address the tasks than it really is.
- We prioritize addressing technical debt just as equally important as any other software development tasks. We consider it a part of our project plan, discuss it in our team meetings, and we make it clear that we will invest time in resolving it.
- Many software development teams choose to allocate an entire day or week to work technical debts. We like to break them into smaller chunks during each iteration. In this way, we make working on technical debt a habit and do not overload the team.
Take Charge of Your Project: Reduce Technical Debt
Technical debt, or code debt, seems to be unavoidable in software projects. Its impact can be mitigated with an appropriate technical debt management strategy. As with any other part of the process, we recommend transparent discussion of it, along with updates and planning to work on this regularly.
If you are already encountering technical debts, you must first know what are the main causes that make technical debt accumulated. They are usually found in the project plan (chosen software architecture and tech stacks), the development process or the team. If you believe you need help identifying and mitigating existing vulnerabilities and risks, contact us today. We are ready to help.