Technical Debt is a powerful metaphor for a clear and present risk in today's software development projects. At Torino Coding Society we've had a conversation about it, and experimented the outcome of improvement initiatives to tackle it.

1. Debito Tecnico? Parliamone!
Renato Brazioli
Agile Coach
me@renatobrazioli.it
http://linkedin.com/in/renatobrazioli
http://renatobrazioli.it
Toolbox Coworking - Torino
24 Settembre 2019

2. Technical Debt?

3. What is Technical Debt?
OOPSLA 1992 - Ward Cunnigham
Shipping first-time code is like going into debt. A little debt speeds
development so long as it is paid back promptly with refactoring.
The danger occurs when the debt is not repaid. Every minute
spent on code that is not quite right for the programming task of
the moment counts as interest on that debt.
Entire engineering organizations can be brought to a stand-still
under the debt load of an unfactored implementation, object-
oriented or otherwise.
http://wiki.c2.com/?ComplexityAsDebt
http://c2.com/doc/oopsla92.html

4. What is Technical Debt?
“Technical Debt: the typically unpredictable
overhead of maintaining the product, often caused by less than
ideal design decisions, contributing to the total cost of
ownership.
May exist unintentionally in the Increment or introduced
purposefully to realize value earlier.”
— Scrum.org Developer Glossary

5. Technical Debt (Martin Fowler)
https://www.martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebt.html

6. Technical Debt Quadrant
We don’t have time for design
What’s layering?
We must ship now and deal with
consequences
Now we know how we should have
done it
Reckless Prudent
Deliberate
Inadvertent
https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebtQuadrant.html

7. Impact of Technical Debt

8. Tell me and I forget
Teach me and I remember
Involve me and I learn
Benjamin Franklin

9. Dice of Debt
SPRINT
# OF NEW VALUE DICE
# OF TECHNICAL DEBT DICE
NEW VALUE CREATED
TECHNICAL DEBT CREATED
NET NEW VALUE THIS TURN
CUMULATIVE VALUE CREATED
(8 to start)
(4 to start)
Subtract the TD total from the NV total.
How much net value created so far?
# OF DICE INVESTED IN TD-REDUCING MEASURES
TOTAL DICE
FINAL
SCORE
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Copyright © 2015 GameChange LLC
http://www.game-change-llc.com/
HOW
MANY
DICE
DO I
ROLL?
Reduced
complexity
EFFECT:
COST:
Code
review
EFFECT:
COST:
Continuous
integration
Increased test
coverage
EFFECT:
COST:
EFFECT:
COST:
HOW
MUCH
VALUE
DID I
CREATE?
Roll all the dice in the NV pool.
Roll all the dice in the TD pool.
UNCERTAIN OUTCOMES
Variant scoring sheet
Check for
each turn
of
investing
https://www.agilealliance.org/dice-of-debt-game/#
NET NEW
VALUE CREATED
(PER SPRINT)
SPRINT
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Copyright © 2015 GameChange LLC
http://www.game-change-llc.com/
TRACKING SHEET
(Average net new value,
if you do not invest in
TD-reducing measures)

10. Dice of Debt
0
4,5
9
13,5
18
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5 Sprint 6 Sprint 7 Sprint 8 Sprint 9 Sprint 10
Value Average
0
10
20
30
40
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5 Sprint 6 Sprint 7 Sprint 8 Sprint 9 Sprint 10
Value Average
127
138
Increase
Test
Coverage
Reduce
Complexity
Code
Review

11. Toss the dice!

12. Agile & Technical Debt

13. Agile Manifesto
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it. Through
this work we have come to value:
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we
value the items on the left more.
Kent Beck
Mike Beedle
Arie van Bennekum
Alistair Cockburn
Ward Cunningham
Martin Fowler
James Grenning
Jim Highsmith
Andrew Hunt
Ron Jeffries
Jon Kern
Brian Marick
Robert C. Martin
Steve Mellor
Ken Schwaber
Jeff Sutherland
Dave Thomas

14. Welcome changing requirements, even late in
development. Agile processes harness change for the
customer's competitive advantage.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and
good design enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work
not done--is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs
emerge from self-organizing teams.
Agile Manifesto: Principles
2
9
10
11

15. Dealing with Technical Debt

16. (Some) Strategy
Make it visible1
Refactor continuously2
Beware of “Definition of Done”3
Remove stuff4
https://link.medium.com/Id0Drz98KZ

17. The 5 Thieves of Time
Too much Work-In-Process
Conflicting Priorities
Unknown Dependencies
Unplanned Work
Neglected Work

18. “Managed” Technical Debt
https://blog.crisp.se/2013/10/11/henrikkniberg/good-and-bad-technical-de

19. Human Cost of Technical Debt

20. Human Cost
Unpleasant work1
Team Infighting2
Atrophied Skills
3
Turnover and Attrition4
https://daedtech.com/human-cost-tec

21. Other Product Development Debt

22. (Some) Strategy
Identified defects are not Technical Debt. They are Quality Debt*
https://www.agilealliance.org/introduction-to-the-technical-debt-concept
Lack of process or poor process is not Technical Debt. It is Process Debt*
Wrong or delayed features are not Technical Debt. They are Feature Debt*
Inconsistent or poor user experience is not Technical Debt. It is User Experience Debt*
Lack of skills is not Technical Debt. It is Skill Debt*

23. AQ

24. THANK YOU
YOUR ATTENTION
FOR
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THANK YOU
YOUR ATTENTION
FOR
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