How do you address technical debt in Scrum?

1 What is Scrum?

Scrum is an agile framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products. It is based on the values of transparency, inspection, and adaptation, and involves three roles: the product owner, the Scrum master, and the development team. Scrum also defines four events: the sprint, the sprint planning, the sprint review, and the sprint retrospective. The sprint is a fixed time-box of one month or less, during which the development team creates a potentially releasable increment of the product. The other events are opportunities for the Scrum team and the stakeholders to collaborate, inspect, and adapt the product and the process.

2 How does Scrum address technical debt?

Scrum does not prescribe a specific way to address technical debt, but it provides some principles and practices that can help prevent, reduce, or repay it. For instance, define a clear and shared definition of done to ensure every product increment meets the quality standards and expectations of the Scrum team and stakeholders. This could include coding conventions, testing, documentation, refactoring, and integration. Refining the product backlog is also important as it allows the product owner and development team to identify and prioritize technical debt items and plan how to allocate time and resources for them in the sprints. Additionally, conducting regular sprint reviews and retrospectives can help the Scrum team get feedback on the product increment, validate its value and quality, detect and resolve technical debt issues early, and continuously improve practices, tools, and communication.

3 What are some strategies to address technical debt in Scrum?

Depending on the nature, impact, and urgency of the technical debt, the Scrum team can employ different strategies to address it. For example, they can repay technical debt as soon as possible, which can prevent it from accumulating and reduce its negative effects. They can also repay it incrementally by allocating time or resources in each sprint to work on technical debt items. Additionally, they can repay technical debt opportunistically by taking advantage of situations where they need to modify or refactor the code. This strategy helps them optimize their efforts and make the most of their existing knowledge and context.

4 What are some challenges to address technical debt in Scrum?

Addressing technical debt in Scrum is not always easy or straightforward. The Scrum team may face some challenges, such as measuring and communicating the technical debt, which can be difficult to quantify and communicate its impact and value. Tools, metrics, or visualizations may be needed to assess and report the technical debt, and to align expectations and priorities with stakeholders. Additionally, the team must balance the technical debt and the business value while justifying decisions and actions. They may also need to deal with pressure or resistance from stakeholders who have different views or interests on the technical debt. Furthermore, maintaining technical excellence and an agile mindset is essential for managing technical debt. The Scrum team must continuously learn, improve, and adapt while fostering a collaborative and transparent environment where technical debt is acknowledged, shared, and addressed.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?