The Best Ways to Reduce Your Technical Debt

During the early 2000s, the saying “Purchase a computer for tomorrow, not just for today” became popular as customers began to prioritise cost over considering how software continuously evolves and demands more from the computer’s hardware. This phrase described the frustration of having to replace a computer earlier than anticipated.

For businesses, investing in software development is a common practice. When Company A faces a new project, they need to consider hiring an external software development company. If the quotation seems too expensive, they may decide on a less effective but cheaper solution or impose unrealistic demands on developers, inevitably leading to sub-optimal code. Once the plan is approved, it can be executed.

Deficiencies in a product, namely inefficiency or an inability to scale and satisfy increasing demand, usually become apparent shortly after a project is started. In the end, there could be numerous obstacles for an organization that chose the more budget-friendly solution.

A major part of a company’s backend is still powered by an outdated system, which presents challenges when attempting to add new features or upgrade the technology. Unfortunately, the individuals responsible for making the decision to switch to a new system are either postponing the transition or pressuring the development team to make the switch too quickly, which could lead to essential features being excluded.

What is the purpose of your time management? A mistake could result in technical debt, which will ultimately cost you.

Defining Technical Debt: What Does it Mean?

The term ‘technical debt’ refers to the prolongation of a development project due to the need to prioritize certain tasks or delay others in order to meet the delivery schedule. Those who make these decisions or are held accountable for the resulting delays understand that there may be negative consequences during later stages of the project.

Postponing the repayment of technical debt can result in added complications when attempting to resolve the issue. Just like any other type of debt, neglecting to pay it off in a timely manner will only aggravate the situation. As technical debt accumulates, resolving the underlying problem becomes increasingly challenging.

In general, there are three main origins of technical debt:

  • Application (the software programme)
  • Infrastructure (the operating systems and environments)
  • Architecture (the hardware)

There could be several reasons why your organization is willing to assume technical debt. For example, meeting a delivery deadline might be prioritized over ensuring that the code is methodically structured and organized. In certain instances, incurring technical debt could be a reasonable decision if it helps to avoid financial losses for the organization.

Promptly addressing technical debt is essential. This raises the question of what the best approach is to deal with it. The following are some possible solutions to consider:

Identify the Trade-Offs Involved.

To comprehend why technical debt has accumulated, we must refer back to the project’s original plans. How much did we have to compromise by selecting JavaScript over Java? Is it feasible that we expedited the software’s release by sacrificing features that were meant to be included from the beginning? Additionally, technical debt may have been incurred due to a lack of security measures throughout the development process. This form of debt may not be completely paid off until a much later stage.

It’s plausible that the current hardware and software investments may not be strong enough to meet future needs. To address this, investing in more solid infrastructure or additional cloud storage may help to clear any technical debt that the company has accumulated. Check out our blog post for a deeper look into the role of hardware and software investments in the software industry.

After identifying the initial vulnerabilities, it is crucial to evaluate whether the technical debt can be repaid and within what timeframe. It is necessary to assess whether the in-house developers can fix the project’s issues in a timely manner. Additionally, it’s important to consider the likelihood of the technical debt being resolved easily, or whether the project may need to be discontinued.

Safety and Security Must Be Prioritized.

Addressing technical debt in the security industry is of utmost importance. Security considerations should be woven into every stage of the project, hence all stakeholders must assess the project to determine how they can achieve this, even if it has already been deployed.

Forming a dedicated team that focuses primarily on ensuring the security of the development process may be beneficial. This team will be responsible for implementing industry-standard security protocols at each stage of the project. Moreover, even if this team cannot contribute to existing projects, they will be able to do so later on.

Don’t Neglect Your Developers!

The most efficient method of reducing technical debt is to employ developers. They possess comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of the project and can accurately identify when and where financial liabilities have developed. Although it may be tempting to ignore their guidance and advice in favor of higher-level stakeholders, doing so could result in a surge in technical debt.

Regular communication with your engineers, and allowing them to contribute to the management of operations, is essential. By providing developers with the appropriate level of responsibility, they can help your company manage its technical debt. Ignoring their guidance could lead to the piling up of debt.

Technical Debt Should Be Considered When Developing a Plan

It is not advisable to ignore technical debt because it won’t just disappear. The longer it is neglected, the worse it gets, and the more challenging it is to resolve. Hence, business and development plans should take into account any potential technical debt.

Keeping track of technical debt throughout the entire software development process is critical. It will provide valuable insight into when and where the debt originated and the most effective method of paying it off.

If you consider technical debt during the development process, you can rest assured that you will be prepared to reduce it. Monitor potential maintenance expenses as your project advances to determine which debts should be settled first. If a major effort is required to complete a component of a project, it should take precedence. Integrate this into each stage of the process.

Accept and Move On

In certain instances, an imperfect strategy for dealing with technical debt might be essential to achieve a specific objective. For instance, if certain features needed to be left out of a software to meet the deadline, you might choose to work with the features that are available and move forward without the ones that were left out.

An updated version of the program provides supplementary features, or alternatively, a different project can be selected to fulfill the requirement. Once the condition is eliminated, the obligation will be met.

Conclusion

Technical debt can be triggered by various factors, but there are ways to eliminate it. It’s crucial to tackle and pay off technical debt before it piles up, as it can become more expensive to maintain and result in software that is unreliable and fails to meet basic demands. If an organization is struggling with technical debt, it can be challenging to avoid the stress of having unreliable software and incurring related expenditures.

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