Presentation as presented during Agile 100 conference keynote. You can find embedded Bug Fixing Tournament video here: https://youtu.be/ZMuJA-QXJhk

1. Tech Debt
from a
Business
Perspective
Jürgen De smet
www.co-learning.be
JurgenLACoach
in/jurgendesmet
c/JurgenDeSmetCSO
Your Chief Simplification Officer

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What is technical debt?

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Who’s experiencing some negative consequences
of having technical debt?

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A few consequences of having technical debt

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Let’s share an observation!
Phase 2
Not taking care of
Technical Debt
Exponential Growth of
Implementation Cost
For New Feature
Phase 1
New Product Started
Low Implementation Cost
For New Feature
Phase 3
Long time not taking care of
Technical Debt
Exploding
Implementation Cost
For New Feature

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Who’s in Phase 2
Today?
Phase 2
Who’s in Phase 1
Today?
Phase 1
Who’s in Phase 3
Today?
Phase 3

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Light at end of tunnel brought to you by running experiments

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2 aspects to the subject
Pay back the debtChange the system

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Change some part of the system…
# of known defects
for the entire product
% time spend
developing Clean Code
% time spend
developing Quick
Bug Fixes
% Clean Code in
the entire product
but we have
1999!!!
O
O

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A system change
# of known defects
for the entire product
% time spend
developing Clean Code
% time spend
developing Quick
Bug Fixes
% Clean Code in
the entire product
O
O

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From centralised decision making to decentralised decision making

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2 classification aspects from a business perspective

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With teams classify issues based on those axes

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2 patterns that could emerge

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Split quadrant in 9 boxes

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Options on consequence of classification

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Make it visible to all

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Stop starting, start finishing practice
Time
Prio

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Track your progress & report on that

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Aspect 2 - Paying back debt

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Visualize your architectural model
of the product or solution and assumed technical debt level

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Add the keepers and your PBL items on the model and decide

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Improvement Kata
Step 1
Step 4
Step 3
Step 2
Grasp the
Current Condition
Get The Direction or
Challenge
Establish your
Next Target Condition
Conduct
Experiments
to get there

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Preferred way to execute on refactoring

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Fast decision making using a decentralised model
Deliberately paying back your debt by refactoring
That’s it!
2 aspects on dealing with technical debt from a business perspective
Step 1
Step 4
Step 3
Step 2
Grasp the
Current Condition
Get The Direction or
Challenge
Establish your
Next Target Condition
Conduct
Experiments
to get there

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Bonus: Bug Fixing Tournament as Kickstart option

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Inspiration for you to build environment that allows

28. My Purpose
Clean it up
or run away!
www.co-learning.be
Help organizations to build
Great Products with Great Teams
in/jurgendesmet
PS: What title would be more suited now?
Technical Debt from a Business Perspective or Technical Debt with a Business Perspective