Technical Debt

 

1. Smells

• Velocity slows down
• Harder to code new features
• More bugs start to appear
• Duplicate Code
• Lack of Test Coverage
• Unreadable Code
• Statements like "We don't have time to: refactor, write unit tests, do test driven development"

 

2. Discussion

 

3. Causes

• Rushing to get things done at the end of an iteration
• Failing to allow for learning curve with TDD

 

4. Consequences

• Team slows down and is able to achieve less and less each iteration.
• Quality takes a hit
• The number of bugs increases and its harder to find and fix bugs.

 

5. Prevention

 

6. Example Remedies

• Stop accumulating technical debt
• Start doing Test Driven Development for all new code
• Increase test coverage and refactor code choosing areas that present the highest risk, have the most bugs etc.
• Read Micheal Feathers book "Working Effectively with Legacy Code"

 

7. Case Studies

 

Credit: this is based on material from "10 ways to screw up with Scrum and XP" by Henrik Kniberg. Personal Experience: Mark Levison