The business owners and project managers do everything possible from their point to complete the project on time and within the decided budget. But every time it is not possible to do so. Many different kinds of problem occur at different stages such as at the development process or the last stage, etc. All the problems need to handle professionally so that everything is under control. With the advancement in technology, it has become very easy for the business to promote their company, is brands and reputation, to make the customer aware about the products and services which they are offering for sale, etc. Technology has really given a platform to the business owners as well so to the customers where they can really interact with each other in an easier and more professional.
Technical debt can occur at any point in time during the life cycle process of software development. There are many different ways to manage the issues or problem of technical debt. You can keep addressing the issues or hire a team to handle the problem in a much better way and efficient manner.
Types/Categories of technical debt
There are basically two categories or type of technical debt. One is known as unintentional, and the other one is known as intentional.
Causes of unintentional and intentional debt
- The unintentional cause of technical debt is deficiency or inadequacy of coding standards and guides, the junior coders who hardly have any experience or skills and the most important one is improper planning about future development.
- The intentional cause of technical debt is time bar which is placed on development, when business owners don’t have that much technical knowledge and when the communication is difficult.
These are the critical issues which need to be addressed professionally and on time so that problems can be controlled much before. There are many different processes which can easily be applied and set into correct motion so that you can easily keep the technical debt lower. This will also help you to address the issues or the problems of technical debt much before any kind of negative consequences takes place. The process which you can apply are refactoring, bug fixing days, code reviews, clear coding standards, and guides, proper communication between business, management, and developers. For the successful management of technical debt, you can also read the debt settlement reviews which are posted by the experts.
In a way to address the no cause of technical debt which exists in a vacuum, one needs to identify the main cause of the problem and what strategies one needs to follow in order to deal with such kind of problems efficiently. If you think that time force or time constraints are a serious problem in your company because the administration and management want better results and quick release, then the cost of all such kind of non-realistic time frames needs to be made clear. If changes are not made and action is not implemented on time, then technical debt and poor-quality code will keep building up.
Strategies to pertain the technical debt
You can easily address technical debt in Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD). The first thing which you need to do is you must prevent creating any new technical debt. And the second thing which you need to do is you must address the actual technical debt properly.
The strategies which Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) applies when it pertains to the technical debt are as follows:
- One of the most important aims of Disciplined Agile Delivery is to identify an Initial Technical Strategy. You should start thinking through critical technical issues much before you apply any kind of strategy and implement the solution. By doing this, you will get a good opportunity to avoid any kind of technical strategy. So, the easiest and effective way in order to deal with technical debt is to avoid it.
- You must have heard about Architecture Owner (AO). The Architecture Owner (AO) has the responsibility to guide the team and help them in making a decision. The decision which needs to be made is very crucial at the architecture level. Architecture Owner (AO) acts as a mentor. AO helps the team at different stages and teach them the design skill. Architecture Owner (AO) also motivates the team to address any kind of technical debt.
- The agile teams are enterprise aware. The main aim of the team is to enhance and influence the entire ecosystem of the organization. The team works closely with the architecture of the organization as well as with the asset team too. When they work together in a team, they can also take benefits of existing assets. Code, templates, services, patterns, guidelines and all the things which can be reused are included in assets. Thus, one of the best strategies for avoiding any technical debt is by reusing the existing assets. This will also save your money, and you won’t have to waste your time and energy in rebuilding or rebuying all those things that you already have with you.
- Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) also guides and offer support as to when you should apply for different forms of refactoring which includes database refactoring, refactoring and user interface (UI) refactoring.
- Another simple way to find out the problem or issue in your work is to go for a comprehensive regression test suite which is run regularly. This kind of test suite will easily help you to detect when defects are introduced or put into your code. When you the problem you can easily fix it or back out the changes at the same time.
Decreasing the technical debt should be your main concern so that you can easily perform all your duties and work without any problem. Addressing and controlling technical debt beforehand will help you to avoid any kind of problem which can hamper your work. In order to manage the issue or problems associated with technical debt, you need to apply the best strategies to manage it easily and simply.