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Software Development Technical Debt: Understanding and Managing it
-
Kanika
- 2023-12-11 04:30:01
- 2 Comments
- Digital Marketing
When a portion of software design or software quality is sacrificed in order to make an early release, technical debt is accumulated. Relaxing test coverage, quality, or design constraints are examples of these bridges. When you accept technical debt today, you are assuming that it will be paid for in the future through refactoring when you have more knowledge or time. Complex code is required for complex functionality. However, technical debt will significantly slow down the rate at which you deliver software in the long run. In this blog, our CRM Software Development Agency in Ashburn VA talks a bit more about this concept.
Debt in Technology: Deliberate or Unintentional?
Technical debt and bad code are not the same thing. The first is caused by poor coding practices or a lack of skills, while the second is the cost of releasing code before it is ready for use. In the first scenario, we do not know that the code is bad; in the second scenario, we make the risk-informed decision to release software early. There are two opposing viewpoints regarding the origin of technical debt:
The first is from Ward Cunnigham and Bob Martin, who made the point that "A Mess is not a Technical Debt." The second is from Steve McConnell - he said that technical debt can happen unintentionally, for example because of bad programming skills or using a different style of coding. We believe that the first definition, which distinguishes technical debt from bad code, is the closest to what the original author intended.
Justification for Technical Debt
There are a few situations in which the risk of taking on technical debt can be accepted:
- You have decided to develop and release an MVP to gather early user feedback because your current understanding of the business requirements is incomplete.
- You are under pressure to use software architecture or implementations with known limitations due to project schedule or budget constraints.
- It is possible that outdated solutions will outlive their usefulness. You can choose to fix them right away, running the risk of delaying the next release, or you can accept them as technical debt and put off refactoring them until a time that works better for you.
- In times of crisis and when test suites with adequate coverage do not cover changes from a better solution, quick fix in code is acceptable. Technical debt rises as a result of these quick fixes.
Developers run the additional risk of accumulating technical debt when they simultaneously work on numerous feature branches. To synchronize perspectives, share knowledge, and align plans, collaboration is required. Technical debt rises with the number of features developed independently and teams working in silos.
Technical Debt Is Hidden
The majority of technical debt is hidden from the developer. Technical debt is not considered when a software product's flaws are obvious to the business stakeholder or end-user. It is possible to directly observe and quantify the value of addressing them.
Lack of documentation, poor software architecture or design, or low test coverage, on the other hand, are invisible to non-technical stakeholders and pose a threat due to their difficult management and uncertain future impact.
Managing Technical Debt
A Business Benefit: The most difficult part of managing technical debt is not figuring out how much it is, but rather figuring out where in your codebase your (limited) refactoring efforts will have the greatest impact on your business. By repurposing data obtained from code versioning tools, the following are the concepts that can guide the process:
- Tools for static code analysis can find and quantify technical debt in a codebase, but that won't be enough, especially if there is a lot of debt.
- The resources, budget, and potential BAU disruptions required to eliminate huge technical debts in an older codebase are excessive. A smart approach to debt management is needed.
- By highlighting hotspots of significant development activities, linking modules to teams or individual developers, and identifying coupled components that tend to change together, the data gleaned from source code versioning tools can offer tremendous insights into where to focus our refactoring.
Guidelines for Reducing Technical Debt
There are two ways to reduce technical debt during CRM software development: proactively or reactively.
- Proactive mode: In this mode, developers working on a new feature find that a piece of code needs to be refactored and included in their current change. Developers may avoid accumulating technical debt for reasons other than project necessity by being educated on code complexity.
- Reactive mode: In this mode, developers agree to periodically reduce technical debt by adding a stage to their production processes. Static analysis tools like SonarQube are integrated into their CI/CD pipelines to facilitate this additional procedure.
Managing technical debt must be a legitimate process within the project delivery framework with appropriate resource allocation, useful tools, and expertise, just like any maintenance task.
Types of Technical Debt
There are several types of technical debt that can accumulate during the software development process. These include:
- Design Debt: Design debt refers to the cost of maintaining or reworking software due to poor design decisions made during development. This can lead to increased complexity, decreased maintainability, and reduced scalability.
- Code Debt: Code debt refers to the cost of maintaining or reworking software due to suboptimal coding practices, such as using hard-coded values or redundant code. This can lead to decreased code quality and increased development time.
- Documentation Debt: Documentation debt refers to the cost of maintaining or reworking software due to inadequate or outdated documentation. This can make it challenging for developers to understand the codebase, leading to increased development time and decreased productivity.
- Testing Debt: Testing debt refers to the cost of maintaining or reworking software due to inadequate testing practices. This can lead to increased bugs and decreased software quality.
- Infrastructure Debt: Infrastructure debt refers to the cost of maintaining or reworking software due to outdated or inadequate infrastructure, such as hardware or software dependencies. This can lead to decreased performance and increased development time.
Pro-tip
Before you sign a contract with any software development company, you should sit down with them and learn about their testing policy. You need to know how they test at every stage of the development process.
You should also think about whether the initial contract will include backup services, support, and maintenance. And if so, for how long will the development team be responsible for these services? You don't want to find out later that your project won't have support or that you'll have to pay a lot of money for maintenance. Before committing to one company, it is best to have all of these details worked out.
Conclusion
In conclusion, software technical debt is a common problem that arises from the trade-offs made during the software development process. It can be defined as the cost of maintaining or reworking software due to the shortcuts and quick fixes made during development. Technical debt can cause a range of issues, such as decreased performance, increased complexity, and reduced code quality. Therefore, it is important to prioritize paying off technical debt and avoid accumulating more debt in the future. This can be achieved through proper planning, effective communication, and continuous improvement. By addressing technical debt early on, our CRM software development company in Ashburn VA ensures that their codebase remains maintainable, scalable, and adaptable to changing business needs. For more information, or to avail our services, visit Collegewebbuilders.com .
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