Our software sucks. We're up to our necks in bugs and technical debt, yet we often seem to hit roadblocks explaining things in ways that bring about meaningful change. In this session you'll learn to gather, analyze, and interpret data in order to create effective presentations to communicate quality, technical debt, and other technical matters in ways that tell a compelling story. You’ll master how to communicate effectively with key stakeholders by taking a data-driven approach blended with storytelling techniques to bridge common gaps between development and business stakeholders. You’ll explore the 7 tools of software quality and how they can bring clarity and sanity to the decision-making process, justify paying down technical debt, and focusing on improving our software in the areas that need it most.

1. TECHNICAL DEBT MUST DIE
COMMUNICATING CODE TO BUSINESS STAKEHOLDERS
WWW.KILLALLDEFECTS.C
OM
TWITTER: @INTEGERMAN
MATT ELAND

2. Software Engineering Manager Technical Debt / Legacy Code

3. Photo by Francisco Venâncio on Unsplash

4. Photo by Francisco Venâncio on Unsplash

5. This Guy

14. Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash

15. Photo by Headway on Unsplash

16. Photo by Gabriel Gurrola on Unsplash

17. Photo by Victor Figueroa on Unsplash

18. Photo by Tom Butler on Unsplash
A state of unnecessary complexity, duplication,
subpar code, or otherwise deficient code that
introduces risks in the form of time, quality,
security, team morale or other forms.
Typically the result of past action or inaction.
- Matt Eland

19. Photo by Tom Butler on Unsplash
A state of unnecessary complexity, duplication,
or subpar or otherwise deficient code that
introduces risks in the form of time, quality,
security, team morale or other areas.
Typically a result of a past action or inaction.
- Matt Eland
Technical debt is code that's more expensive
to maintain than it should be.
- Adam Tornhill
Software Design X-Rays

20. CAUSES OF
TECHNICAL
DEBT
Lack of Knowledge
Developer Mistakes
Strategic Decisions
New Technologies / Releases
Requirements Changes

21. TECH DEBT - PRINCIPAL & INTEREST OVER TIME

22. Photo by Nong Vang on Unsplash

23. Photo by Anita Denunzio on Unsplash

24. Photo by Arny Mogensen on Unsplash

25. Photo by Arny Mogensen on Unsplash
Delivered to
Wrong Address
Wrong Shipment
Delivered
Collisions with
Property
Drones Running
out of Energy
Drones Did
Not Return
Spontaneous
Combustion

26. Photo by Ryan Franco on Unsplash

27. Photo by Icons8 team on Unsplash

28. GATHER DATA
WORK ITEMS SUPPORT
INCIDENTS
TIME TRACKING SOURCE CONTROL BUILD HISTORY
TESTS ANALYTICS CODE ANALYSIS APPLICATION
MONITORING
SURVEYS
Automate it if possible
Collect stories as well as data

29. Source: Azure DevOps

30. Source: Toggl

31. Source: GitHub

32. Source: SonarCloud

33. Source: SonarCloud

34. Source: SonarCloud

35. Source: NDepend – Code Analysis Tool for .NET - www.NDepend.com

36. Source: Raygun – www.Raygun.com

37. ANALYZING DATA
CHECK SHEETS FISHBONE
DIAGRAM
PARETO CHARTS HISTOGRAM RUN CHART CONTROL CHART SCATTER PLOT
7 BASIC TOOLS OF SOFTWARE QUALITY

38. HISTOGRAMS
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
%CHANCEOFFAILURE
MODEL NUMBER
Daily Chance of Defect / Drone Model

39. RUN
CHARTS
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
# Drones

40. CONTROL
CHARTS
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
# Incidents by Month

41. CHECK
SHEETS
Issue Sunny Cloudy Rain Snow Total
Delivered to Wrong Address 15 56 87 95 253
Wrong Shipment Delivered 35 31 18 28 112
Drones Did Not Return 17 13 24 35 89
Ran out of Battery 12 37 89 45 183
Collisions with Property 10 25 35 50 120
Spontaneous Combustion 17 5 8 1 31
Total 106 167 261 254 788

42. CHECK
SHEETS
Issue Sunny Cloudy Rain Snow Total
Delivered to Wrong Address 15 56 87 95 253
Wrong Shipment Delivered 35 31 18 28 112
Drones Did Not Return 17 13 24 35 89
Ran out of Battery 12 37 89 45 183
Collisions with Property 10 25 35 50 120
Spontaneous Combustion 17 5 8 1 31
Total 106 167 261 254 788

43. FISHBONE DIAGRAM
Drones have
Trouble in Rain
Out of Battery Wrong Address

44. FISHBONE DIAGRAM
Drones have
Trouble in Rain
Out of Battery Wrong Address
Low Accuracy GPS
Servers Busy in Rainy Weather

45. FISHBONE DIAGRAM
Drones have
Trouble in Rain
Low Accuracy GPS
Servers Busy in Rainy Weather

46. SCATTER
PLOT

47. SCATTER
PLOT

48. FLOWCHARTS
Web API
Controller
Authenticate
Retrieve
Drone Route
Route
Found?
Route to
Nearest
Center
No
Yes
Calculate
Drone
Instructions
Drone Routes
Save Route
Return
Instructions

49. FLOWCHARTS
Web API
Controller
Authenticate
Retrieve
Drone Route
Route
Found?
Route to
Nearest
Center
No
Yes
Calculate
Drone
Instructions
Drone Routes
Save Route
Return
Instructions
2 26 14
79
35

50. FLOWCHARTS
Web API
Controller
Authenticate
5
% CPU
Retrieve
Drone Route
12
% CPU
Route
Found?
Route to
Nearest
Center
28
% CPU
No
Yes
Calculate
Drone
Instructions
52
% CPU
Drone Routes
Save Route
3
% CPU
Return
Instructions

51. PARETO
CHART

52. PARETO
CHART

53. PRESENTING
COMMUNICATING TECHNICAL DEBT
Photo by Teemu Paananen on Unsplash

54. BUSINESS
CONCERNS
CAN I KEEP OUR USERS
HAPPY?
WILL WE STILL HIT OUR
STRATEGIC GOALS?
WILL CHANGING IT CAUSE
MORE BUGS?
DO WE HAVE THE RIGHT
PEOPLE?

55. YOUR GOALS
COMMUNICATE CRITICAL
NEEDS
UNDERSTAND BUSINESS
NEEDS
START AN HONEST
CONVERSATION
MEET CURRENT AND
FUTURE NEEDS

56. PRESENTATION STRUCTURE
AGENDA BOTTOM-LINE UP
FRONT
ORIENTING
INFORMATION
SUPPORTING DATA RECOMMENDATIONS
OR NEXT STEPS
1 – 2 Slides 0 - 1 Slide 3-5 Slides 0 - 3 Slides

57. VISUALS
MATTER
Taken from https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisugly/comments/6wqste/this_is_why_surveys_dont_use_writeins_from/

58. Photos by Armin Lotfi, Mohammed Hassan and Irene Strong on Unsplash

59. OTHER TIPS
Anticipate Objections / Questions
Handle Questions Gracefully
Be Prepared for a No

60. Photo by Zan on Unsplash

61. Photo by Lubo Minar on Unsplash

62. SAFELY PAY DOWN TECHNICAL DEBT
HOW TO NOT GET THE ENTIRE COMPANY MAD AT YOU WHILE IMPROVING CODE
Photo by Andrés Canchón on Unsplash

63. Photo by Ildefonso Polo on Unsplash

64. Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

65. Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash

66. New
Routine
Legacy
Routine
ScientistClient

67. New
Routine
Legacy
Routine
Scientist
Results
Publisher
Client

68. STRATEGIES FOR DEBT RELIEF
BECAUSE NOT EVERYTHING IS A REWRITE

69. Photo by Douglas Williams on Unsplash

70. Normal
Normal
Normal
Tech
Debt

71. Normal Work…
Tech Debt
11%

72. Dev 1 – Normal Work Dev 2 – Normal Work
Dev 3 – Normal Work Dev 4 – Tech Debt

73. Photo by Jia Ye on Unsplash

75. Photo by Arseny Togulev on Unsplash

76. BENEFITS OF COMMUNICATION
Building Trust Gaining Understanding Meeting the
Organization’s Needs
Paying off the right
technical debt

77. TECHNICAL WRITING ON:
• SOFTWARE QUALITY
• TOOLS & PROCESSES
• TESTING STRATEGIES
• ARCHITECTURE
• SQUIRREL BRAINS & GENETIC ALGORITHMS
WWW.KILLALLDEFECTS.COM
LEARNING RESOURCES

78. ALSO… STICKERS!

79. DON’T
FORGET!

80. WWW.KILLALLDEFECTS.COM
TWITTER: @INTEGERMANMATT ELAND