[Go Make Things] Why paying down tech debt matters

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Tech debt is all those hot fixes and hacks and spaghetti code you quickly pushed into production for the sake of hitting a launch deadline.

On most teams that I've worked on or advised as a consultant, tech debt is shipped with a promise that it will be "fixed after launch."

In reality, what often happens is the next big thing gets prioritized, paying off tech debt gets pushed down in priority, and eventually forgotten about entirely.

In my experience, this is most common on teams or in organizations that put a high value on shipping new things quickly. There's often a high priority on shipping new features, and a lot of internal pressure from sales teams to do so as often as possible.

This makes sense from a marketing perspective.

New features are a clear thing you can point to and sell to a user or show off to an executive. Making code easier to maintain or subtly improving UX is not.

But if you're an organization that values shipping fast, it's critical that you eventually reduce that tech debt.

Tech debt is a bit like gum on the walking path.

If it's just one piece, you can walk around it. You may occasionally step in it, and when that happens it's sticky and inconvenient, but manageable.

But as more and more pieces of gum get spat onto the ground, it eventually becomes impossible to walk anywhere without getting stuck in it. Eventually, you spend more time dealing with the gum than getting where you're going.

Tech debt is like this for shipping new features.

A few little hacks here and there are mostly manageable and avoidable. But as your tech debt grows, shipping new features gets slower and harder. Releases are more likely to have bugs and errors.

Your developers end up spending more time dealing with the debt than writing new code.

I've seen this happen over-and-over again with various employers and clients.

If you value shipping quickly, you need to take a quarter to pay that tech debt down.

Yes, that means you'll have to pause on shipping new features for a bit. The payoff is you'll be able to ship them much more quickly going forward.

If you need help paying down tech debt or guidance on how to get started, get in touch. I have a limited number of consulting spots available.

Cheers,
Chris

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