kaa2015, tech debt: understanding its sources and impacts through a game
TRANSCRIPT
Technical Debt –Understanding its
Sources and Impacts Through a Game
David Croley - @davidcroley
David Croley
Agile Velocity
Principal Consultant
Certified Scrum Manager ( CSM)
@davidcroley
Transforming Technology Organizations2
We’d prefer to deliver a fast, steady stream of new
features…
But sometimes delivery feels slow, even stagnant.
CC BY 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwspacific/6121377305/
And we hope it doesn’t feel like this!
Technical Debt
A useful metaphor similar to financial debt
“Interest” is incurred in the form of costlier development effort
Technical Debt can be paid down through refactoring the implementation
Unlike monetary debt, Technical Debt is difficult to quantify
Development Investment
Good and Bad Debt
Martin Fowler’s Technical Debt Quadrantshttp://www.martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebtQuadrant.html
Late Deliveries
Mounting Defects
Rising Development Costs
Poor Customer Responsiveness
Long Delivery Times
Frustrated and Poor Performing Teams
Impact of Tech Debt
Impact of Technical Debt
“Agile Project Management”, Jim Highsmith, second edition
Let’s do an exercise to understand the concept further.
Form into Teams of at least 4 people.
FeatureCost: 15
FeatureCost: 10
FeatureCost: 5
Technical DebtCost 15
Impact -10
Technical DebtCost 15
Impact -10
Technical DebtCost 10
Impact -5
Technical DebtCost 5
Impact -5
Technical DebtCost 5
Impact -5
Iteration Card
Setup your board as follows
FeatureCost: 15
FeatureCost: 10
FeatureCost: 5
Technical DebtCost 15
Impact -10
Technical DebtCost 15
Impact -10
Technical DebtCost 10
Impact -5
Technical DebtCost 5
Impact -5
Technical DebtCost 5
Impact -5
Iteration Card
Add up the total impact of all technical debt items
-35
25
-35
X
FeatureCost: 10
FeatureCost: 15
FeatureCost: 10
Technical DebtCost 15
Impact -10
Technical DebtCost 15
Impact -10
Technical DebtCost 10
Impact -5
Technical DebtCost 5
Impact -5
Technical DebtCost 5
Impact -5
Iteration Card
You have 25 Points to SpendSelect the cards you want to spend your points on.
No partially done work.
FeatureCost: 5
FeatureCost: 5
-35
25
101515
X
FeatureCost: 10
FeatureCost: 15
FeatureCost: 10
Technical DebtCost 15
Impact -10
Technical DebtCost 15
Impact -10
Technical DebtCost 10
Impact -5
Technical DebtCost 5
Impact -5
Technical DebtCost 5
Impact -5
Iteration Card
You have 25 Points to SpendSelect the cards you want to spend your points on.
No partially done work.
FeatureCost: 5
FeatureCost: 5
Iteration CardCost: 10
Database is getting large and complex. We need to add automated migrations to reduce manual work and support
refactoring.
Impact: -5
The goal is to complete as many feature points at the end
of 5 iterations.
Go!
The goal is to complete as many feature points at the end
of 5 iterations.
Stop!
Theoretical Capacity
Technical Debt
Productivity
Time
Debrief
So how did it go?
What strategy did your team use to mix features and debt?
Is it realistic?
Capture your debt
Visualize and Estimate
Tools and Techniques
Use tools like SonarQube to help find and measure tech debt
Ask the team
Track defects by location in the code
Make sure the team feels empowered to fix debt issues every day
Publicize and Communicate
Need to invest time, team needs slack
Boy Scout slide
Incrementally make your code better
Key’s to Prioritizing Technical Debt
Have a Clear Definition of Done - Acceptance Criteria
Articulate Business Value
Work Incrementally - Breakdown Items
Make Visible - Add to the Backlog
Prioritize/ Allocate Time
21
21
1
2
1 2 1 1
One Backlog Prioritized by the Product Owner
Feature StoryTechnical Debt
Story
2121
12
12 11
2121
12
12 11
Feature StoryTechnical Debt
Story
Two Backlogs Prioritized Independently
80/20 Allocation Strategy
Discuss how you could apply these concepts to help your
teams.
David Croley – [email protected]
Website – AgileVelocity.com
Blog – AustinAgile.com
Twitter - @austinagile
Thanks!
