It doesn’t matter if you’re a big tech company or a small IT organization providing custom applications. The code everywhere has problems, and it’s never a good

It doesn’t matter if you’re a big tech company or a small IT organization providing custom applications. The code everywhere has problems, and it’s never a good idea to complain about it. In big tech, organizations often try to move quickly and release features… as part of whatever goals their organization promised to deliver. Expectations are unrealistic or only achievable if you really stretch, and everyone wants to deliver because that’s how you get promoted. This incentive structure leads to an abundance of tech debt. And tech debt is hard to quantitatively measure. Eventually it slows down your pace of innovation, as all the little things that were accepted along the way pile up. I don’t know of a solution to the problem other than looping your leadership in on what are the barriers to productivity - whether it’s poorly architected code, fragile build systems or tests, etc. You can put together a plan on how to make a meaningful dent in the problem, but often times it’s good intentions. And by the time your actionable plan starts seeing execution, your leadership changes or product priorities shift and you’re back at square one. Specifically from a big tech perspective, this is the cost that people don’t like to talk about. And it’s because of the incentive structures… product managers must spit out features for their own career progression, which goes into planning and promises made to executives, which reflects in what the company produces and whether equity owners see continued growth in these growth companies or not, directly impacting how the company is perceived, brand value, and market cap.