Tech debt, which is bound to happen in software engineering and Development Company, is a debt which can be paid now or later, just like any financial debt. Sometimes technical development team knowingly incurs tech debt as they have to sacrifice quality of the codes produced by time and constant pressure from the stakeholders for an early release. This is done hoping that they would rectify the default or drawbacks in the code later, but it does not go according to the plan always due to other commitments, job transfer, and several other reasons. There are also some cases where tech debt can occur without any awareness.
Review Tech Debt Regularly
But whatever be the reason of tech debt occurrence, it is worth reviewing it from time to time. It is necessary to identify the attributes of tech debt which may be due to unrealistic schedules and use of inexperienced resources. Scope creep, lack of code reviews and testing, unrefined requirements, few code comments and little use of framework and patterns are some of the other attributes and causes of tech debt existence. When the technical team does not have the proper tools and techniques, improper knowledge and skill, poorly prepared and do not think about the future problems, tech debt might creep in.
Different Categories Of Tech Debt
Lack of professionalism, getting the job done fast and procrastinating refactoring, and when someone knows that he would not be responsible for the maintaining, the code later may also result in tech debt accumulation. On a broad scale, the different categories of it are code debt which is a result of poorly and convoluted design and hard-coded elements. Tech debt can also be due to designing and the architectural structure which is the result of abstractions, questionable objects in the codes, and lack of separating concerns.
Some Other Types Of Tech Debt
There are few other types of tech debts which are also found a software development company like the API debt. This debt is not granular and therefore has long strings of faulty codes which are results of poor error handling. Such tech debts make the codes unresponsive and slow in functionality for its poor structure. You may also incur tech debt due to a quality issue which can be due to little automation and poor test coverage, inadequate unit and performance tests along with little or no afterthought. Infrastructure debt is the result of old equipment which is not easily scalable full of unrealistic data recovery plan, sloppy deployment, and little replication.Click here to learn more.
Compare All Tech DebtsÂ
You must compare all tech debts according to the interest payment and the cause of it to successfully address it. You have to do proper retrospection, discuss issues freely, and find a remedial plan just like you would do to find the best way to pay off credit card debt to get out of the black hole of technical debt. Remember, just like the financial debt you cannot let tech debt to accumulate and reach to unmanageable proportions to the extent of the early death of your company.
