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Analogies and metaphors are pointless. Whenever you use them, they'll just respond with their own counter metaphors they pull equally efficiently from their own
by epicgiga 7y ago
Analogies and metaphors are pointless. Whenever you use them, they'll just respond with their own counter metaphors they pull equally efficiently from their own rear ends, with a tone of indignation, implying you're trying to trick them.
The only thing that works with technical debt is to aggressively uncover and strike down any short term incentivisation from an organization perspective, and to set in absolute concrete terms what the irrevocable code maintenance policy is, and punish those who don't follow it. Everything beyond that, TD measurement tools and TD backlogs (which you interlace at a minimum ratio) are just details.
But the last thing that'll help you is talking about Tetris in front of your client / PO / boss / whatever. Just call it "maintenance work". And if they're hostile to even that, it means they're stupid enough that you can just do it anyway and call it something else and they'll never know.
- rightbyte 7y ago"Just call it "maintenance work". And if they're hostile to even that, it means they're stupid enough that you can just do it anyway and call it something else and they'll never know." That is quite true. Unless you are working in a jira ticket sweatshop just do it.
- brianmcc 7y agoIMO analogies and metaphors can absolutely help build trust across groups which may not yet really understand each other's domains. They can be highly successful, but from your comment it sounds like you've dealt with managers or clients who simply want to "win the conversation". In that case I can understand why you'd prefer to take care of the necessary remediation more covertly. Doesn't mean others won't benefit from apt metaphors though - bad collaboration partners sounds the issue here, not figurative techniques per se.
- kuroguro 7y agoI've beaten tetris. Twice!