This webinar discusses the concept of Technical Debt and approaches for managing it effectively. Technical debt is the consequence of choosing a software design or construction approach that is expedient but increases complexity and future costs. It can impede the team’s ability to add new features, quickly fix bugs, and evolve the software product. From a business perspective, technical debt can keep a company from remaining competitive in today’s dynamic marketplace. Read more from the original copy at https://www.synerzip.com/webinar/managing-technical-debt-jan2012/

1. Michael Hall
Three Beacons
mike@threebeacons.com
214.783.3936
Managing Technical Debt
Using Agile

2. Premise
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“All known compound objects decay and become more complex with
the passage of time. Software is no exception.”
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3. What is Technical Debt?
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• “Technical Debt” term coined by Ward Cunningham in 1992
• Also called “design debt”
• Choosing a design or construction approach that is expedient
• But increases complexity and is costlier in the long term
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4. The Debt Metaphor
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• Use a credit card to obtain something now
• Pay for it later - financial debt
• Plus interest
(short term)
(future payment due)
(the cost of being able to do this)
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5. Technical Debt
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• The consequences of:
- slapdash architecture
- poor design
- hasty coding (versus rapid)
- lack of quality focus
- others?
The danger occurs when the debt is
not repaid quickly. Every minute
spent on not-quite-right code results
in interest on that debt.
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6. Technical Debt
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T or F: all technical debt is bad and should
be avoided at all costs.
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7. Types of Technical Debt
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An outline to use when discussing technical debt
1. Unintentional
2. Intentional
A. Short-term
B. Long-term
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8. Types of Technical Debt
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9. Technical debt quadrant
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INTENTIONAL
UNINTENTIONAL
RECKLESS PRUDENT
“We don’t have
time to mess with
coding standards.”
“There is a
standard way of
doing this?”
“We will ship on time
and revise the quick
fix as our top priority
in the next release.”
“We now know what
to avoid.”
*
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10. Technical debt quadrant
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* Short-term: Only if the commitment
is there to schedule, prioritize, and
fix soon (e.g. in the next sprint).
Long-term: Only if the commitment
is there to sponsor projects to
resolve the debt.
If you must take on technical debt for valid
reasons, then “respect the asterisk”.
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11. Cost of Technical Debt
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12. Technical Debt - impact
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“The all too common problem is that development organizations let their
debt get out of control and spend most of their future development
effort paying crippling interest payments.”
- Jeff Atwood, www.codinghorror.com Programming and Human Factors
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CASE STUDY
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13. • Person
• Team
• Business
Technical Debt – impacts
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1990 - 2000 2000 - 2010
CASE STUDY
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14. Techniques for
PREVENTING
Technical Debt
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15. 1. Draw the Line
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Culture shift:
• From this day forward …
• We no longer allow technical debt!
• Only exception: tactical or strategic
business justification
• Even then, we “respect the asterisk”
*
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16. 2. Strong “Definition of Done”
•Things to consider:
- Coding standards adherence
- Code reviews
- Static analysis
- Dynamic purification
- Complexity analysis
- Written unit tests
- 0 known bugs
- 100% test cases pass
- Test cases automated
- Etc.
•Visible for
- User Story
- Sprint
- Release
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17. 3. Test-Driven Development
TDD: write test, fail the test, then write code to pass the test. Refactor when needed.
Develop higher quality streamlined code!
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18. 4. Collaborative Designs
• Whiteboard sessions on design topics
• Leverage collective experience of the team
• Wisdom of the crowd
• User Design Studio
• Less reliance on subject-matter experts
• Etc.
Increase the chance of an optimal design!
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19. Recap
• Draw the line!
• Strong definition of done
• TDD
• Collaborative designs
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Use these agile techniques to help prevent technical debt
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20. Techniques for
Managing NEW
Technical Debt
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21. 1. Debt Backlog
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• Used when technical debt is business justified
• Tracks debt by name
• Lists work tasks associated with each debt
• Includes an estimate
• Tracks the commitment to fix schedule
• Form: product backlog entries, separate Excel
spreadsheet, special designation in defect
DB, tool entry, sticky notes, etc.
• Helps to keep the debt service level visible!
Track the debt as you go!
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22. Debt Backlog - example
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Debt Backlog - My Natural Healer iPhone App
Debt Business Justification Sprint Incurred Estimate Work Items Commitment Note
Variable names preceded
with "email" even though
email is only part of their
use
Confusion factor is not
currently there, but will be
in the future. sprint 2 1week
Change variable
names to more
meaningful
names. sprint 3 DONE
Duplicate code for
displays in Remedy
Controller and Favorites
view
Meet early May release
schedule, willing to accept
cost of double maintenance
for now. sprints 3- 4 3weeks
New file to
contain
common
methods for
remedy display,
change existing
code to conform
Release 1.1- expected out in July
2010
Servicing this debt may
push the SEARCH
function out to a later
release.
The same method handles
both designating and
undesignating a favorite
Too risky to do right before
the customer milestone
demo sprint 6 2weeks
Bust out
undesignate
into separate
method, add
logic to parts of
code to know
which method
to invoke Sprint 7, possibly sprint 8
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23. 2. Automatic Payment Plan
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•Pay as you go
•Slow team’s velocity down to service the debt as
it is incurred
•Include technical debt items in upcoming sprints
• As quickly as feasible
• In line with fulfilling commitment made when
debt was justified
Service the debt as you go! Keep it as close to $0 as possible.
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24. 3. Makeup Stories
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• “Makeup”: a story that apologizes to the code base
- And promises to fix it!
• Placeholder indicating non-user story work
- For when you incur technical debt
- For any reason you circumvented quality
- Use a different color card (red or pink is good)
• Add it to the product backlog
• Prioritize into next sprint (if possible)
Good way to track technical debt.
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25. Makeup Stories - example
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Who Description
Estimate
(Hours)
Remaining
(Hours) Notes
User login
Chris Login window 8 4
Hide password 2 2
John Verify login id is correct 16 0 i/f with Security system
John Verify password is correct 16 12 i/f with Security system
Alert and log if incorrect 8 8
Chris Block after 3 incorrect tries 24 0 Log occurrence to "watch file"
Launch main window if correct 4 4
Refactor and improve Connection Timeout Technical debt item
Mona Framework services API change 8 2
Mark Adjust code to use system timers 40 20
Display main window
Bala, Tim Query DB for video connections 32 0 Bala to do DB arch
Tim Establish connections 16 16
Display sub-tiles according to user config 64 64
Research competition
Identify main competitors 40 40
Paul Gap analysis 120 80
Document and share market differentiators 80 80
Amy Brief marketing and sales teams 16 0
Total hours 494 332
Total relative points from product backlog 43 43
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26. 4. Adopt a Debt!
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User Story Makeup Story
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Good way to insure that makeup stories get worked.
• “Adopt” approach
• If a user story leverages the debt area,
“adopt” the debt card as part of the user
story effort
• Add the makeup story estimate into the user
story
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27. 5. Dedicated Sprint to Service Debt
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• Similar to a “bugfix sprint”
• Do this only if really needed
- Preponderance of business debt occurring during
project
- Team concerned about debt growth
- Upcoming features rely on code that has debt
• Or, combine for a bugfix/debt sprint
Periodically pay down your debt throughout the project!
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28. Recap
• Debt backlog
• Service the debt commitment
• Makeup stories
• Adoption
• Dedicated debt sprint
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Use these agile techniques to manage new technical debt
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29. Techniques for
Managing LEGACY
Technical Debt
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30. 1. Re-Do Project
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• Business decides on a total re-design and re-write
• Happens rarely, hard to justify
• Hard for execs to see the value
• Often timed with new technology introduction
• How to insure that the new system is really better?
- Rigorous quality plan
- Strong Definition of Done
- Iterative development
- Feedback loops
- Inspect & adapt
- Watchful eyes
Not an answer: “better people”
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31. 2. “Small Chunks” Approach
• Smaller chunks of effort
• In conjunction with normal dev flow
• Can work well across an API abstraction
• Often requires an architectural assessment
• Can require code changes to other parts of
legacy base (risky)
• Happens more often than Re-Do projects
• Must insure end result is worth the effort!
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32. 3. 70/30 Rule
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• 70% - new user stories
• 30% - paying down the debt of a legacy system
• Rule can also be used to manage new technical debt
• Helps to have a PO with history of the legacy system
• Socialize that legacy improvements are part of this
project!
- Ask for commitment
- Ask to be held accountable
- Do your part
- Ask others to continue the tradition
70 30
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33. 4. “While There” Rule
• While adding a new feature
• Any legacy function modified for the feature must be
rewritten according to quality plan
- Variable names
- Coding guidelines
- Braces alignment
- Etc.
• Works well for support team also (while fixing bugs)
• CAUTION: may introduce bugs
Final thought on case study:
• We improved almost 50% of the 4M LOC
• Significant drop in critical defects reported from customers
• But, we introduced at least 10 new bugs on existing functionality
• Each time – required additional justification to continue the effort
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34. Recap
• Re-Do project
• Small chunks approach
• 70/30 rule
• “While there” rule
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Use these agile techniques to manage legacy technical debt
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35. Conclusion
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© Three Beacons LLC, 2011
“Developers know their code has technical debt, but they feel powerless to
stop adding to it.”
– David Rooney, “Technical Debt: Challenging the Metaphor”
A Sobering Thought
There is hope – using Agile.
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“Take my advice: go well, not fast. Care about your code. Take the time to
do things right. In software, slow and steady wins the race; and speed kills.
– Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob), president of Object Mentor and
agile methods author
Managing Technical Debt - conclusion
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38. Good References
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39. Questions?
www.synerzip.com
Hemant Elhence, hemant@synerzip.com
469.322.0349
Agile Software Product Development Partner
39
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Short/Long term Agile coaching
Facilitated improvement
Agile Methods training:
Scrum Team Training
Agile / Scrum
User Stories – Requirements w/ Agility
Product Owner Role
ScrumMaster Role
Etc.
All courses can be delivered onsite at your location
Michael Hall, mike@threebeacons.com
214.783.3936
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40. Confidential
Synerzip in a Nut-shell
1. Software product development partner for small/mid-
sized technology companies
 Exclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies, typically
venture-backed companies in growth phase
 By definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clients
 Deep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing, deployment
2. Dedicated team of high caliber software professionals
for each client
 Seamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparency
 Stable teams with very low turn-over
 NOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support
3. Actually reduces risk of development/delivery
 Experienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering discipline
 Practices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined
4. Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage
5. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking
offshore team captive – aka “BOT” option
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41. Confidential
Synerzip Clients
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42. Thank You!
www.threebeacons.com
Michael Hall
mike@threebeacons.com
214.783.3936
www.synerzip.com
Hemant Elhence
hemant@synerzip.com
469.322.0349
Agile Software Product Development Partner
Call Us for a Free Consultation!
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