Managing Technical Debt

Managing Technical
Debt
By:
Adam Culp
Twitter: @adamculp

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Managing Technical Debt
●
About me
– OSS Contributor
– PHP Certified
– Zend Certification Advisory Board
– PHP-Fig voting member (IBM i Toolkit)
– Consultant at Zend Technologies
– Organizer SoFloPHP (South Florida)
– Organizer SunshinePHP (Miami)
– Long distance (ultra) runner
– Photography Enthusiast
– Judo Black Belt Instructor

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●
About me
– OSS Contributor
– PHP Certified
– Zend Certification Advisory Board
– PHP-Fig voting member (IBM i Toolkit)
– Consultant at Zend Technologies
– Organizer SoFloPHP (South Florida)
– Organizer SunshinePHP (Miami)
– Long distance (ultra) runner
– Photography Enthusiast
– Judo Black Belt Instructor
I am the
PHP Ninja!!!

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Fan of iteration
– Pretty much everything requires iteration to do well:
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Long distance running
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Judo
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Development
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Evading project managers
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Managing Technical Debt!

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What is Technical Debt?

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– Code Smells
...a code smell is any characteristic in the
source code of a program that possibly
indicates a deeper problem… - wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_smell

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Code “smells”
– “Smells” hinting a refactor may be needed:
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Duplicate Code (rule of 3)
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Long Methods
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Large Class
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Long Parameter (argument) List
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Divergent Change – cascade change to accommodate another
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Shotgun Surgery – change ripples as bugs
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Feature Envy – method uses parts from other class
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Switch Statements – sacrifice polymorphism

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Code “smells”
– Cont'd:
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Lazy Class – class not doing much
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Speculative Generality – something built for possible future
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Temporary Field/Variable
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Message Chains – object asking object asking object
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Middle Man – directors in place but serve no real purpose
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Inappropriate Intimacy – classes share private parts
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Data Class – getters and setters, but nothing else
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Comments – where comments cover bad code

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● Comments can also be a bad “smell“
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Comments are often used to cover up bad code.
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Code should be self-documenting

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● Coding Standards save time
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Gives direction
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PHP Framework Interoperability Group (https://www.php-fig.org).
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Standard NOT important
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Unless it‘s public code
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Choose one
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Stick with it
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Consistency is key

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● Names should be clear
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Functions and variables should tell a story.
$elapsedTimeInDays;
$daysSinceCreation;
$daysSinceModified;
$fileAgeInDays;
$elapsed;
$createdDays;
$modifiedDays;
$age;
GoodBad

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● Shy away from variations of the same name
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To ensure names are different enough to portray difference.
$product
$productInfo
$productData
$productDescription
What is the difference between these?

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● Certain characters are hard to understand
Lower case L
Uppercase O (oh)
Uppercase I (eye)
Bad

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● Technical names help developers who actually read the code.
● Non-technical terms for client documentation.
● Class names should be nouns
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Describe.
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Ex. - Customer, Account, Product, Company.
● Method names should be verbs
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Action.
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Ex. - getCustomer, closeAccount, updateProduct, addCompany.
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Pick a set of keywords and stick with them.
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Ex. - fetch, get, add, update, remove, delete

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● More on Clean Code
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Functions:
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Short
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Single purpose
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As expected
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Well named
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Recognizing bad doesn't mean we know how to make good
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We know a good/bad song, but are not song writers
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Clean code = caring developer
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Does not require many comments

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– Code Smells
– Impossible to avoid
– Builds up like credit card

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Causes of Technical Debt?
– Happens while coding
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Adding functionality
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Enhancing logic

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Enhancing logic
– Architectural
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Passwords in source control
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Domain names in code
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Env info in code

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Enhancing logic
– Architectural
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Env info in code
– Deadlines

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●
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Enhancing logic
– Architectural
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Env info in code
– Deadlines
– Tech un-savvy boss

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Enhancing logic
– Architectural
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Env info in code
– Deadlines
– Tech un-savvy boss
– YOU!

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What about support items?
– Lack of documentation
– Lack of license
– No Sharing (OSS)
– Ignoring Community

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Why Remove Technical Debt?
– More creating and less reading

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– Easier onboarding

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– Less bugs
– Reduce unexpected behavior

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– Less bugs
– Reduce unexpected behavior
– Happier developers, customers, boss
– More money!

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When To Remove Technical Debt?
– Always!
– Part of “Normal Development” cycle
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Code...refactor...code...refactor...etc.

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Tools To Find Technical Debt?
– Static Analysis
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3rd party
– Exakat Cloud
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Self-hosted is free
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Cloud hosted commercial product
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Pricing model is complicated

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– Static Analysis
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3rd party
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SaaS
– Codacy
– CodeClimate
– Scrutinizer

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– Static Analysis
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3rd party
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SaaS
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OSS
– Codesniffer
– PHP Mess Detector (phpmd)
– PHP Copy/Paste Detector (phpcpd)
– PHPDepend
– PHPStan
– Phan
– PHPMetrics
Good source:
https://github.com/exakat/php-static-analysis-tools

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Containers
– Job specific images
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https://hub.docker.com/u/adamculp/

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Containers
– Job specific images
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https://hub.docker.com/u/adamculp/

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Automation
– Static Analysis Automated
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Continuous delivery/integration
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Source control hooks
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IDE

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Thank you!
– Code: https://github.com/adamculp/
Adam Culp
http://www.geekyboy.com
http://RunGeekRadio.com
Twitter @adamculp
Questions?

Managing Technical Debt

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