How do you manage technical debt across different projects, platforms, and technologies?

Managing technical debt across different projects, platforms, and technologies can be challenging, but it is important to do so in order to avoid costly problems down the road. Here are some tips: -Establish a central repository for tracking technical debt. -Use tools and metrics to identify and measure technical debt. -Prioritize technical debt remediation based on business impact -Create a plan for remediating technical debt -Communicate with stakeholders Here are some additional tips for managing technical debt across different projects, platforms, and technologies: -Use a common set of coding standards and best practices -Encourage collaboration between teams -Use tools to automate tasks -Monitor your progress

There's two important components regarding technical debt: ?? When will the tech explode That how long before you won't be able to maintain the system in a working state. As long as you are able to absorb the debt before it's too late, you'll be fine(-ish) Of course, you need to be aware of both numbers. ?? What's the throughput of your team Technical debt does not only concerns the computer performances, but also the ability of your team to add code to the existing one. The more debt you have, the more complex a task it'll be for the dev (and the slower he'll get). The critical number is up to you. Tech debt is not that much of a big deal as long as you are aware of its impact and existence. Then it's just a matter of prioritization.

Is technical debt sinking your projects? ??? Imagine you're a ship captain navigating through stormy seas, constantly battling technical debt. The first step is to assess your code base and pinpoint where the leaks are. Use tools like code analyzers, code reviews, and testing frameworks to measure code quality and complexity. Gather feedback from developers and stakeholders to understand pain points. ?? Tools → code analyzers, reviews ?? Metrics → quality, complexity ?? Feedback → developers, stakeholders Are you ready to navigate these waters and steer your project to success?

Not all tech debt poses an immediate risk; areas of code without bugs or planned changes can be benign. Drawing from experience, a structured approach involves grouping reported bugs and regressions by functional area to identify critical "hot spots." Then, collaborating with developers to estimate effort and ROI helps determine which issues to address first, considering factors like planned developments and business costs. This method ensures that resources are allocated efficiently to tackle tech debt, where it most impacts operational efficiency and long-term development goals.

Rank debt items based on factors like severity, risk, cost to fix, and business value Align priorities with product roadmaps and strategic initiatives Balance quick wins and foundational improvements in the backlog Secure buy-in from stakeholders on the importance and sequencing of debt reduction

?? Are you letting technical debt sink your projects? ?? Imagine you're navigating a vast sea of code. Technical debt is the stormy weather threatening your ship. The next step is to prioritize debt reduction based on the value and urgency of each issue. Use a matrix or backlog to rank issues by severity, frequency, effort, and impact. Apply the Pareto principle: 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Focus on the most critical issues first to keep your ship on course. ?? Rank issues by severity and impact ?? Use the 80/20 rule to focus efforts ?? Avoid wasting resources on minor issues Are you prioritizing effectively, or just drifting? ??

Planning how to tackle tech debt can be tricky. When treated as a standalone project, I noticed that it tends to get sidelined in favour of more immediately visible business priorities. Indeed, gaining stakeholder buy-in can be difficult when the outcome is essentially maintaining existing functionality without regression. Instead, I've seen success in integrating tech debt repayment into larger initiatives. By addressing tech debt as part of new projects, we can carve out a cleaner path for implementation, free of existing technical burdens. It's easier to sell this to stakeholders because they see the added value in new features and improved stability, even if it takes longer.

Are you sailing straight into a storm of technical debt across various projects? Imagine you're the captain of a ship, navigating different seas—each representing a project, platform, or technology. To avoid sinking, plan debt repayment by allocating time, budget, and resources. Use strategies like refactoring, rewriting, upgrading, or replacing code. Agile methodologies, such as sprints, can break tasks into manageable units. Communicate your plan to your crew, stakeholders, and customers to ensure smooth sailing. ?? Refactor or rewrite problematic code. ?? Upgrade or replace outdated components. ?? Use agile sprints to manage tasks. Ready to hoist your sails and navigate through the technical debt storm?

Allocate a percentage of capacity in each iteration for debt remediation Break down large debt items into manageable increments that fit within sprints Determine the approach (refactor, rewrite, replace) for each debt item Coordinate dependencies and release plans across projects and platforms Communicate the debt repayment plan and progress to all impacted parties

Follow clean coding practices and standards during refactoring Leverage automation tools for refactoring, testing, and code quality analysis Perform code reviews to ensure quality and consistency of debt repayment work Deploy changes incrementally to validate outcomes and manage risk Monitor key metrics to track the effectiveness of debt reduction efforts

To prevent the accumulation of tech debt effectively, it's crucial to avoid repeating past mistakes. From experience, this involves upskilling the engineering team with new technical capabilities and fostering a culture of code quality through ongoing training, coaching, and knowledge sharing. Also, engaging all stakeholders across the organisation ensures a collective commitment to prioritise quality over shortcuts or compromises. By combining technical upskilling with a cultural shift towards rigorous code review and adherence to best practices, teams can mitigate the risks associated with tech debt and sustainably maintain software integrity and efficiency over time.

In my experience the budget for this work should be negotiated in advance so that all stakeholders recognize the ongoing need to improve the organization’s technical foundation. Agreeing to a fixed % of bandwidth that engineers have dedicated to tech debt is the common approach. This prevents trade off decisions between product priorities and tech debt, which is important because taken one-off the product priorities almost always win. Engineers can then prioritize there too tech debt projects within this fixed pre-allocated budget.this gives clarity to both business stakeholders and engineers on how much time will be invested towards these activities on an ongoing basis.

You don’t have to maintain what you don’t build. So why are we doing it? Being clear on the business value of a proposed project and rigorously drilling into the thinking can avoid costly downstream operational, management and technical resources. Exploring the unexamined assumptions can help expose poorly justified cases.

Conduct retrospectives to understand the root causes of technical debt accumulation Identify process, tooling, or competency gaps that need to be addressed Share lessons learned and best practices for avoiding and managing technical debt Continuously monitor and report on technical debt metrics to inform future planning and prioritization

While paying down tech debt is critical, I have found that every successful company’s technical code base has massive tech debt. It is import to note that these companies are successful in spite of the debt, and perhaps they are successful because of that tech debt. As engineers we know that premature optimization is a major issue and tech debt is often the preferred solution when compared to prematurely optimizing the code base.