Technical Debt
The cluster focuses on discussions about technical debt in software development, including its definition, metaphors like financial debt, benefits and risks, management strategies, and distinctions from incompetence or messes.
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There's a tech debt analogy in here somewhere.
That technical debt isn't going to write itself :).
You're talking about technical debt, obviously.
What is "technical debt?"
Now that's technical debt!
Technical debt is only bad if you don't plan to pay it back.
The whole tech debt concept might be the wrong abstraction.
Technical debt = "why didn't you do it right the first time?"
Debt is a good metaphor. Carrying technical debt can be a smart business decision. Constantly taking out more loans and never making payments leads to bankruptcy.In my experience the problem is usually it's hard to quantify the costs. It's easy for managers to tell themselves engineers are just perfectionists. Someone's bonus might depend on not listening and they probably won't be held accountable when something goes wrong.
Tech debt is like all other debts, it need to be serviced. You keep accumulating it and it becomes toxic. Never take any debt and you are leaving easy money on table and may loose to competition because you have slower delivery.