4 ms·
The thing is that most projects fail for reasons other than technical debt. Not having clear requirements to begin with is one, and running out of money along t
by tboyd47 10y ago
The thing is that most projects fail for reasons other than technical debt. Not having clear requirements to begin with is one, and running out of money along the way is another big one. There's not much programmers can do about those, and burning time working on tech debt may actually hurt you on the second one.
Rather than thinking of it like a house you have to live in, I think of a healthy codebase more like a busy police precinct. It may be a bit messy, but that's just because there's always something more important to do than tidy up.
- ensignavenger 10y agoWhat you say is correct, but to add to the analogy- if the precinct is such a mess that the officers are constantly tripping over stuff, and criminals are going free because they are misplacing evidence, it is probably time to do some cleaning and organizing!
- tboyd47 10y agoAbsolutely. But there is a baseline level of messiness that's acceptable and that's what I'm trying to convey (unlike a house [unless you have kids]).
- humanrebar 10y agoProjects don't fail because of technical debt, but organizations do.
- tboyd47 10y agoI don't get it. Are you saying that tech debt causes entire companies to fold?
- humanrebar 10y agoIt creates and exacerbates more obvious symptoms, yes. Companies that couldn't transition to the PC era. Likewise for the internet, mobile, etc. Some companies don't go under, they just buy another tech stack. Depending on the circumstance, that's acknowledging the risks of technical debt. Some companies make that purchase, fail to reconcile new tech with old (also tech debt) and waste piles of money