The success of your software engineering projects could be significantly influenced by one critical factor: technical debt management.
In software development, technical debt management is not just another buzzword. On the contrary, it holds immense importance for engineering effectiveness in the fast-paced world of custom software development.
Studies have shown that resolving issues related to technical debt can account for a staggering 10% to 20% of the total cost of a software project. These numbers alone underscore the urgency of addressing technical debt systematically and proactively.
In this blog, we explore how to understand and effectively manage technical debt. We also assess how product engineering teams can ensure long-term maintainability, scalability, and success in their software projects.
Why is Managing Technical Debt in Engineering Projects Important?
Managing technical debt in engineering projects is important because of how technical debt impacts engineering effectiveness.
Technical debt, which refers to shortcuts or suboptimal solutions made during development, accumulates over time, slows progress, hampers scalability, and increases the cost of future maintenance and enhancements.
By proactively addressing technical debt through regular refactoring, code reviews, and architectural improvements, teams can maintain a sustainable pace of development, reduce the risk of system failures, and ensure long-term project success.
Risks Associated with Technical Debt
Managing technical debt can be challenging, especially with the associated risks. Therefore, you must know the possible challenges engineering teams usually face with technical debt.
The most critical risks associated with technical debt management include the following:
Reduced Code Quality
Technical debt often leads to lower code quality, including poor architecture, lack of proper documentation, and shortcuts taken to meet immediate objectives. This can decrease maintainability, making introducing new features, fixing bugs, or changing the system harder.
Increased Development Costs
Maintaining and enhancing the software becomes more challenging and time-consuming as technical debt accumulates. Developers spend more effort understanding and working around existing code issues, increasing development costs. The longer technical debt persists, the more expensive it becomes to rectify.
For instance, a famous bank in North America discovered that the collective systems and applications within its infrastructure resulted in tech-debt expenses exceeding $2 billion.
Decreased Productivity
Technical debt can slow down development teams and reduce their productivity. Developers may spend a significant amount of time dealing with workarounds and fixing bugs caused by suboptimal code rather than focusing on delivering new features. The accumulation of technical debt can create a vicious cycle that hampers productivity.
Longer Time-to-Market
Technical debt can delay the release of new features or software updates. Addressing existing debt and refactoring code to improve quality and maintainability can lengthen the development cycle, leading to a longer time-to-market. This delay may result in missed opportunities or decreased customer satisfaction.
How to Manage Technical Debt Effectively
The following are the best practices for managing technical debt in engineering effectively:
Prioritizing Technical Debt
Not all technical debt is equal, and it's important to prioritize and address the most critical instances. Consider the impact of each debt item on the system's stability, maintainability, and future development. Prioritize based on factors such as the severity of the debt, potential business impact, and the effort required to address it.
Refactoring Technical Debt
Refactoring is the process of improving the internal structure of the code without changing its external behavior. First, prioritize and plan refactoring efforts based on the identified technical debt items. Then, break down the refactoring work into manageable increments and integrate it into regular development cycles. By refactoring incrementally, you can minimize the risk of introducing new bugs while gradually improving the codebase.
Establish Clear Criteria
Define criteria and guidelines for evaluating and prioritizing technical debt. This could include customer impact, business value, architectural impact, risk level, and development effort. By establishing clear criteria, you can objectively assess the importance of different debt items and make informed decisions.
Involve Stakeholders
Include relevant stakeholders in the decision-making process, such as product owners, project managers, and development teams. Discuss the impact of technical debt on the overall product roadmap, release cycles, and business objectives. Collaborative decision-making ensures that the prioritization of technical debt aligns with the organization's broader goals.
How to Prevent Technical Debt from Accumulating
Technical debt management can be smoother if you employ the right practices. Here are some of the ways to prevent technical debt from accumulating.
Prioritize Quality and Testing
Place a strong emphasis on quality assurance and testing throughout the development lifecycle. Implement automated testing, including unit, integration, and regression tests, to catch issues early and reduce the likelihood of introducing technical debt.
Code Reviews
Encourage regular code reviews as part of your development process. Peer reviews help identify potential issues, improve code quality, and ensure adherence to coding standards. They can also serve as a proactive measure to prevent technical debt from being introduced.
Documentation
Maintain up-to-date documentation, including architectural diagrams, design patterns, and coding conventions. Clear documentation helps developers understand the codebase, reduces ambiguity, and makes it easier to maintain and modify the software over time, preventing technical debt from accumulating due to confusion or lack of knowledge.
As a case in point, a successful maritime equipment company produced over 3 million lines of code in 16 years. But small changes to the code often broke it down. The reason was a lack of documentation of design and program choices.
Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment
Implement continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to automate build, testing, and deployment processes. CI/CD pipelines can help catch issues early, ensure code changes are properly tested, and reduce the likelihood of introducing technical debt due to manual errors or oversights.
| Categories | Technical Debt | Maintenance |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | It accumulated software development choices prioritizing short-term benefits over long-term quality and maintainability. | Ongoing activities keep a software system in an excellent working state. |
| Nature | A consequence of trade-offs or shortcuts made during the development process. | Essential for ensuring a software system's reliability, stability, and usability. |
| Objectives | Improve code quality, reduce risks, and enhance maintainability. | Ensure system reliability, stability, security, and performance, and address evolving needs. |
| Causes | Trade-offs, shortcuts, neglecting best practices, delaying refactoring, etc. | Changes in hardware or software dependencies, user feedback, evolving requirements, etc. |
| Impact | Increased development time, reduced productivity, increased risk of bugs, and decreased overall software quality. | Ensures system reliability, stability, security, and performance and addresses user needs. |
| Timeframe | Accumulates over time during development. | Ongoing throughout the software system's lifecycle. |
| Relationship | Technical debt contributes to the need for maintenance. Therefore, addressing the technical debt should be part of the maintenance process. | Maintenance activities provide an opportunity to address technical debt and improve software maintainability. |
Effective technical debt management is paramount for achieving optimal engineering effectiveness in today's fast-paced technological landscape. As a result, organizations prioritizing technical debt management experience higher levels of engineering effectiveness and are more likely to meet project deadlines and customer expectations.
By proactively managing and reducing technical debt, engineering teams can optimize productivity, enhance software quality, and foster innovation, ultimately leading to improved engineering effectiveness and organizational success.