5 ms·

This is what you sound like when refusing to address technical debt

49 points by henk53 11y ago

facepalm 11y ago
Is "technical debt" not just "things you haven't done yet"? Or code for "hey client, you'll have to pay us for x more months"?
- weaksauce 11y ago
  It's poor decisions early in the project that make it harder and harder to add features and fix bugs reliably and quickly. And, like debt, it has a compounding effect upon the rest of the project.
  - sopooneo 11y ago
    I wouldn't say it's necessarily "poor" decisions, though it often is. To extend the metaphor in the cartoon, maybe you had three minutes to produce a demo cart and close the sale, and that was enough time to put holes in some square tiles, but not to machine round wheels. In that case it's not a technically good choice to use square wheels, but it is arguably a prudent one.
    - henk53 11y ago
      Indeed, technical debt can be there for whatever reason. It could be that idiot coder who caused a lot of damage in the code before someone finally checked what he did. It could concern old code created by otherwise sensible programmers at a time when it just wasn't clear how something should work. It could be a matter of something that was once a good pattern, but by the introduction of something newer has become technical debt (although you mostly would call this just "old code"). And indeed, sometimes you have to hack something in because there's this customer of manager who DEMANDS that something happens NOW. In general technical debt is basically bad code that when left unfixed will do more damage over time and will often end up costing you more than the times it takes to just fix it.
      - manicdee 11y ago
        "I want results, not excuses!" "I am paying you for stuff that works, not fancy acronyms!" "Let's do it the way that works today and we can sort out the exceptions Tomorrow™"
jaredklewis 11y ago
Funny. Also interesting the degree to which us programmers are obsessed with this. Not technical debt itself, but technical debt the metaphor. There seems to be an unlimited supply of blog posts outlining the finer points of the metaphor like who is the bank, which project management concept correlates to your credit rating, and so on.
- davidgerard 11y ago
  Sysadmins too. I think it's because we're desperately seeking out the argument that will convince them to commit resources to clearing it down a bit. I have a rant I'm trying to anonymise about people who are natural-born tech debt generators, all unaware.

49 points by henk53 11y ago

Is "technical debt" not just "things you haven't done yet"? Or code for "hey client, you'll have to pay us for x more months"?

weaksauce 11y ago
It's poor decisions early in the project that make it harder and harder to add features and fix bugs reliably and quickly. And, like debt, it has a compounding effect upon the rest of the project.
- sopooneo 11y ago
  I wouldn't say it's necessarily "poor" decisions, though it often is. To extend the metaphor in the cartoon, maybe you had three minutes to produce a demo cart and close the sale, and that was enough time to put holes in some square tiles, but not to machine round wheels. In that case it's not a technically good choice to use square wheels, but it is arguably a prudent one.
  - henk53 11y ago
    Indeed, technical debt can be there for whatever reason. It could be that idiot coder who caused a lot of damage in the code before someone finally checked what he did. It could concern old code created by otherwise sensible programmers at a time when it just wasn't clear how something should work. It could be a matter of something that was once a good pattern, but by the introduction of something newer has become technical debt (although you mostly would call this just "old code"). And indeed, sometimes you have to hack something in because there's this customer of manager who DEMANDS that something happens NOW. In general technical debt is basically bad code that when left unfixed will do more damage over time and will often end up costing you more than the times it takes to just fix it.
    - manicdee 11y ago
      "I want results, not excuses!" "I am paying you for stuff that works, not fancy acronyms!" "Let's do it the way that works today and we can sort out the exceptions Tomorrow™"

jaredklewis 11y ago

Funny. Also interesting the degree to which us programmers are obsessed with this. Not technical debt itself, but technical debt the metaphor. There seems to be an unlimited supply of blog posts outlining the finer points of the metaphor like who is the bank, which project management concept correlates to your credit rating, and so on.

davidgerard 11y ago
Sysadmins too. I think it's because we're desperately seeking out the argument that will convince them to commit resources to clearing it down a bit. I have a rant I'm trying to anonymise about people who are natural-born tech debt generators, all unaware.