Let me summarize:
- Pay off technical debt when you implement a story, if you can.
- Swarm to start and finish a story. This will help you avoid and pay off debt.
- Write more tests to expose the debt, so no one is surprised in the future.
- Expose the debt by creating a debt backlog so the debt can be ranked in preparation for iteration planning.
- When planning an iteration, take the top item off the debt backlog. Do pairwise comparison of that item with the top item on the feature backlog. Which item has more value? Put that item on the iteration backlog. Continue until the team says, “Stop, we cannot do more in this iteration.”
- Your very last solution is rearchitecting. Why? Because it prevents you from making progress in the project. Read Startup Suicide – Rewriting the Code. It’s not just suicide for startups.
Always make sure the technical debt is visible. That is key to managing it. Whether you like my solution(s) or not, make the debt visible. And, if you don’t like any of my ideas, please do comment. Heck, comment if you do like them. I would love to know what you think.
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About the author
Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” helps organizational leaders see problems and risks in their product development. She helps them recognize potential “gotchas,” seize opportunities, and remove impediments. Johanna was the Agile 2009 conference chair. She is the technical editor for Agile Connection and the author of these books:
- Manage Your Job Search
- Hiring Geeks That Fit
- Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects
- The 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
- Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management
- Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People
Johanna is working on a book about agile program management. She writes columns for Stickyminds.com and projectmanagementcom and blogs on her website, jrothman.com, as well on createadaptablelife.com.
