What is Technical Debt and How to Manage It
According to Stripe's research in 2018, the average developer spends more than 17 hours a week dealing with maintenance issues such as debugging and refactoring. Additionally, they spend approximately four hours a week on “bad code,” which equates to nearly $85 billion worldwide in lost opportunity costs annually. Nearly two-thirds of developers agree that this is “excessive” and believe that clear prioritization, responsibilities, and long-term product goals would improve their productivity.
The Reality of Software Development at Scale
Imagine a developer at Facebook introduces a tiny bug in a seemingly insignificant part of the codebase. Initially, it might seem like a minor issue, but as users start experiencing unexpected behavior, complaints pour in. The developers now have to dig through millions of lines of code to identify and fix the bug. This process can take days or weeks, during which user satisfaction drops, and the team is bogged down in firefighting mode. Meanwhile, other development tasks are delayed, and the bug might cause further issues, accumulating what is known as technical debt.
What is Technical Debt?
Technical debt is like credit card debt in coding terms. It’s the extra cost you incur by choosing a quick and easy solution now, which you’ll have to pay off later with interest in the form of more work and complications.
Common Causes of Technical Debt
- Rushed Development: Tight deadlines can lead to shortcuts and poorly written code. For instance, you might hack together a quick solution to meet a deadline, knowing it's not the best approach, but thinking you'll come back to fix it later. More often than not, "later" never comes.
Lack of Documentation: Without proper documentation, future developers might struggle to understand the code, leading to errors. Imagine inheriting a project with zero documentation. Every change you make is a gamble because you don’t fully understand the existing codebase.
Poor Design Decisions: Inadequate planning can result in a software architecture that’s difficult to maintain and extend. Think of building a house without a blueprint; you might get the walls up, but you'll face endless issues with plumbing, wiring, and stability.
Skipping Testing: Foregoing thorough testing can lead to undetected bugs and issues that must be addressed later. It’s like driving a car without ever checking the oil – eventually, you’re going to break down.
This is what resonated most with me yesterday in the Udemy course – the concept of technical debt. It's amazing how seemingly small shortcuts can snowball into major issues down the line.
Have you ever encountered technical debt in your projects? Share your experiences in the comments below!
Tomorrow's Daily Dev Dive will tackle the hero in this story: the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). We'll explore how SDLC helps us avoid technical debt and build robust software solutions. Don't miss it!