You're facing mounting technical debt in your software. How will you tackle the accumulated burden?
Staring down a mountain of technical debt in software development can be daunting. To reduce it without derailing current projects, consider these strategies:
- Prioritize debts by impact. Address high-impact issues first to improve your system's stability and performance.
- Allocate time for refactoring. Dedicate a portion of your development cycle to improving code quality.
- Document and track debt. Keep a record of technical debt items to ensure they're acknowledged and addressed over time.
How do you manage technical debt in your projects? Feel free to share your approach.
You're facing mounting technical debt in your software. How will you tackle the accumulated burden?
Staring down a mountain of technical debt in software development can be daunting. To reduce it without derailing current projects, consider these strategies:
- Prioritize debts by impact. Address high-impact issues first to improve your system's stability and performance.
- Allocate time for refactoring. Dedicate a portion of your development cycle to improving code quality.
- Document and track debt. Keep a record of technical debt items to ensure they're acknowledged and addressed over time.
How do you manage technical debt in your projects? Feel free to share your approach.
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One simple principle I encourage my team members to follow and I always try to follow is the Boy Scout rule which helps to reduce the burden of tech debt. Always leave the codebase or source file in a better state than you found it. It could be removing a simple unused import, an unused variable, adding a missing unit test or splitting a complex function into smaller and simpler ones.. A small improvement per day per developer cumulatively makes it much better.
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1. First, align on the definition of “tech debt” in your organization. 2. Take an inventory of the tech debt. 3. Prioritize them. Pay back the ones you owe with “high interest rate” - if it gets in the way of getting your priority business projects, get it done first. - if the system is about to collapse (or big security concerns), get it done. 4. Reach an agreement with your stakeholders to set aside some % of your capacity to work on tech debt.
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Managing technical debt requires a strategic, ongoing effort to ensure it doesn't hinder progress. I start by prioritizing debt based on its impact—focusing first on issues that affect system stability, performance, or scalability. I then allocate specific time within each development cycle for refactoring, ensuring the team regularly addresses technical debt while still making progress on new features.
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We do this generally in our development process we keep a steal week every month where the team does not take any new feature work but focus on the high priority technical debt while setting up process to make sure the new feature work is not increasing the technical debt Note technical debt which was created over few months / years would take similar amount of time to get fixed
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I think the first step is prioritizing by impact fix what’s most critical to stability and performance. Allocating regular time for refactoring during development cycles can prevent it from piling up further. Finally, documenting and tracking debt ensures it stays visible and manageable over time. It’s about balancing progress with maintenance. cheers - Pankaj
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To manage technical debt effectively, I prioritize issues based on their impact on system performance and user experience, tackling high-impact items first. I allocate regular time for refactoring and improving code quality during sprints to balance progress and maintenance. Additionally, I document and track technical debt meticulously to ensure visibility and gradual resolution, fostering a proactive approach without disrupting current project timelines.
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Dívida técnica é inevitável no desenvolvimento de software, mas ignorá-la pode comprometer a saúde do sistema. Gerenciar isso exige estratégia: ✅ Priorize pelo impacto: Resolva primeiro os problemas que afetam estabilidade, desempenho e usuários. ✅ Reserve tempo: Dedique até 20% de cada sprint para melhorias de código. ✅ Rastreie e documente: Registre as dívidas em ferramentas como Jira para garantir visibilidade e progresso. ✅ Automatize: Use ferramentas como SonarQube para identificar problemas e evitar novos acúmulos. ✅ Eduque o time: Conscientize sobre os custos da dívida técnica para prevenir futuros problemas.
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To tackle technical debt, I would: Assess and Prioritize: Identify critical issues affecting performance, security, or scalability, and prioritize them based on impact. Plan and Refactor Gradually: Create a plan to address debt incrementally, refactoring small sections of the codebase in each release. Focus on Code Quality: Implement coding standards, automated tests, and code reviews to maintain high-quality code and prevent future debt. Foster Continuous Improvement: Encourage a culture of ongoing improvement to minimize new debt. This approach ensures technical debt is managed effectively without disrupting development.
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The point of tackling such a technical complex: - building a strong structer before development - strong idea with linking all functions - based idea on the power of information and data sets, cloud infrastructure cycle of how could that take it to empower the system in strength of smooth sailing cycle.
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