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Beyond Technical Debt
 The interest we pay on our failures.
 April 17, 2013
Technical Debt

  Ward Cunningham suggested the term “technical debt” to refer
   to the cutting of corners when you build software.

  His premise was that if you cut corners, the shoddy work would
   accumulate in the form of “interest” that needed to be paid on
   the “principal”, much like a financial debt.

  Some use the term to describe shortcuts they intend on taking,
   while others use it as a historical view to identify what has
   already accumulated.




April 17, 2013
Accumulation of Debt

  We find the concept of technical debt useful to describe the
   ‘sins of the past’ and to encourage our customers to clean up
   the debt or they’ll pay the price

  Clearing up the debt comes in many shapes:
         Taking time to refactor code bases
         Document the system
         Revisit the non-functional requirements / re-architect
         Replace an outdated component or technology




April 17, 2013
The Real Debt Threat

 In addition to the traditional technical debt, we’ve encountered
 new forms of debt that plague software delivery teams



 1.     Organizational Debt   5.   Tooling Debt
 2.     Personnel Debt        6.   Automation Debt
 3.     Process Debt          7.   Testing Debt
 4.     Practice Debt         8.   Operations Debt




April 17, 2013
Organizational Debt refers to ineffective
 organizational structures that obstruct the efficient delivery of
 work.

  Many organizational hierarchies are ancient relics. They haven’t
   been changed to reflect new work patterns.
  Some organizations are designed around office politics.
  Conway’s Law suggests that our deliverables reflect the
   organizational structure that created it.

 Let software processes drive the organizational design.


April 17, 2013
Personnel Debt refers to organizations that have the
 wrong people, leading to inefficient delivery.

  Poor hiring practices let the wrong people in the door.
  Poor firing practices kept the wrong people in.
  Poor retention and training practices failed to get the most out
   of the good people.

 An organization can clean up technical debt but if they have a
 personnel debt problem, technical debt will come right back.


April 17, 2013
Process Debt refers to organizations that have the wrong
 delivery processes: Too much, not enough, or just wrong.

  Some still using “agile” to mean “process free”
  Many stuck in older methods (waterfall, RUP, etc.)
  Few have Introduced cross-cutting process owners (such as
   crossing DevTestOps)

 It’s easy to detect a good process – and a bad one. It’s much
 harder to define one and keep it around.


April 17, 2013
Practice Debt refers to organizations that fail to
 accumulate and disseminate best practices to their teams.

  “Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat
   it.” – we must document tacit knowledge and leverage it.
  The body of knowledge gets stale. Out with the old and in with
   the new.
  Only the most important practices should be enforced as policy.

 Those who want to establish a TRUE culture should think more
 about institutionalizing knowledge.


April 17, 2013
Tooling Debt refers to organizations that don’t have the
 right tools or platforms for the job at hand.

  “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
  Some organizations have failed to refresh the tools needed.
  Other organizations have gone “tool crazy”; they have too many
   tools to get knowledgeable on any one of them.

 Languages, IDE’s, Platforms and other tools make us efficient but
 only when we find the right balance.


April 17, 2013
Automation Debt refers to organizations that
 continue to do things by hand that should be automated.

    No continuous builds.
    No continuous delivery.
    No automated operational recovery.
    Tool chain isn’t integrated.

 Our industry is going through a rebirth in how we automate the
 software development process and connect it to infrastructure
 and platforms: DevOps + Software Defined Computing


April 17, 2013
Testing Debt refers to organizations that built software
 but did inadequate testing.

    System lacks unit or functional tests.
    System lacks operational tests (perf, load, resilience, security)
    System lacks UI or usability tests
    Disaster recovery routines never tested

 Debt associated with testing has a VERY HIGH interest rate. This is
 a MUST FIX area.


April 17, 2013
Operational Debt refers to organizations that create
 systems that are hard/expensive to operate in a production setting.

  System wasn’t properly instrumented (logs, monitors, …)
  Didn’t plan for patches or versioning up-front
  System was hard-coded to specific hardware/platforms and can’t be
   easily moved to new gear or DC locations
  System only runs on most expensive gear or platforms

 Developers make mistakes but it shows up in operations budget. Huge
 opportunity to save money in this area!


April 17, 2013
Declaring Bankruptcy or Paying off the Debt

  On occasion, we find a software system that has accumulated
   large technical debts. Business owners are forced to make a
   decision: Declare bankruptcy or pay off the debt.

  Remember: It’s not just “technical (application) debt”.
  If the other eight types of debt are still in place, it’s likely that
   any effort to fix technical debt will fail.


 Don’t just fix technical debt. Do root cause analysis on
 your whole environment!


April 17, 2013
MomentumSI Consulting

 Consulting – Strategy - Delivery

         Assessment of current state, workshops and roadmaps
         Culture transformation: rethinking processes, incentives and systems
         Upgrading capabilities in continuous builds, testing and deployment
         Experts in modern tooling and implementation practices



                  For a briefing on our offerings, email: Jeff Schneider
                             jschneider@MomentumSI.com


                 Cloud - App Dev - Big Data - DevOps

April 17, 2013
Beyond technical debt

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Beyond technical debt

  • 1. Beyond Technical Debt The interest we pay on our failures. April 17, 2013
  • 2. Technical Debt  Ward Cunningham suggested the term “technical debt” to refer to the cutting of corners when you build software.  His premise was that if you cut corners, the shoddy work would accumulate in the form of “interest” that needed to be paid on the “principal”, much like a financial debt.  Some use the term to describe shortcuts they intend on taking, while others use it as a historical view to identify what has already accumulated. April 17, 2013
  • 3. Accumulation of Debt  We find the concept of technical debt useful to describe the ‘sins of the past’ and to encourage our customers to clean up the debt or they’ll pay the price  Clearing up the debt comes in many shapes:  Taking time to refactor code bases  Document the system  Revisit the non-functional requirements / re-architect  Replace an outdated component or technology April 17, 2013
  • 4. The Real Debt Threat In addition to the traditional technical debt, we’ve encountered new forms of debt that plague software delivery teams 1. Organizational Debt 5. Tooling Debt 2. Personnel Debt 6. Automation Debt 3. Process Debt 7. Testing Debt 4. Practice Debt 8. Operations Debt April 17, 2013
  • 5. Organizational Debt refers to ineffective organizational structures that obstruct the efficient delivery of work.  Many organizational hierarchies are ancient relics. They haven’t been changed to reflect new work patterns.  Some organizations are designed around office politics.  Conway’s Law suggests that our deliverables reflect the organizational structure that created it. Let software processes drive the organizational design. April 17, 2013
  • 6. Personnel Debt refers to organizations that have the wrong people, leading to inefficient delivery.  Poor hiring practices let the wrong people in the door.  Poor firing practices kept the wrong people in.  Poor retention and training practices failed to get the most out of the good people. An organization can clean up technical debt but if they have a personnel debt problem, technical debt will come right back. April 17, 2013
  • 7. Process Debt refers to organizations that have the wrong delivery processes: Too much, not enough, or just wrong.  Some still using “agile” to mean “process free”  Many stuck in older methods (waterfall, RUP, etc.)  Few have Introduced cross-cutting process owners (such as crossing DevTestOps) It’s easy to detect a good process – and a bad one. It’s much harder to define one and keep it around. April 17, 2013
  • 8. Practice Debt refers to organizations that fail to accumulate and disseminate best practices to their teams.  “Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.” – we must document tacit knowledge and leverage it.  The body of knowledge gets stale. Out with the old and in with the new.  Only the most important practices should be enforced as policy. Those who want to establish a TRUE culture should think more about institutionalizing knowledge. April 17, 2013
  • 9. Tooling Debt refers to organizations that don’t have the right tools or platforms for the job at hand.  “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”  Some organizations have failed to refresh the tools needed.  Other organizations have gone “tool crazy”; they have too many tools to get knowledgeable on any one of them. Languages, IDE’s, Platforms and other tools make us efficient but only when we find the right balance. April 17, 2013
  • 10. Automation Debt refers to organizations that continue to do things by hand that should be automated.  No continuous builds.  No continuous delivery.  No automated operational recovery.  Tool chain isn’t integrated. Our industry is going through a rebirth in how we automate the software development process and connect it to infrastructure and platforms: DevOps + Software Defined Computing April 17, 2013
  • 11. Testing Debt refers to organizations that built software but did inadequate testing.  System lacks unit or functional tests.  System lacks operational tests (perf, load, resilience, security)  System lacks UI or usability tests  Disaster recovery routines never tested Debt associated with testing has a VERY HIGH interest rate. This is a MUST FIX area. April 17, 2013
  • 12. Operational Debt refers to organizations that create systems that are hard/expensive to operate in a production setting.  System wasn’t properly instrumented (logs, monitors, …)  Didn’t plan for patches or versioning up-front  System was hard-coded to specific hardware/platforms and can’t be easily moved to new gear or DC locations  System only runs on most expensive gear or platforms Developers make mistakes but it shows up in operations budget. Huge opportunity to save money in this area! April 17, 2013
  • 13. Declaring Bankruptcy or Paying off the Debt  On occasion, we find a software system that has accumulated large technical debts. Business owners are forced to make a decision: Declare bankruptcy or pay off the debt.  Remember: It’s not just “technical (application) debt”.  If the other eight types of debt are still in place, it’s likely that any effort to fix technical debt will fail. Don’t just fix technical debt. Do root cause analysis on your whole environment! April 17, 2013
  • 14. MomentumSI Consulting Consulting – Strategy - Delivery  Assessment of current state, workshops and roadmaps  Culture transformation: rethinking processes, incentives and systems  Upgrading capabilities in continuous builds, testing and deployment  Experts in modern tooling and implementation practices For a briefing on our offerings, email: Jeff Schneider jschneider@MomentumSI.com Cloud - App Dev - Big Data - DevOps April 17, 2013