Technology is becoming important for organizations with time. Companies are delivering digital services to their customers. Thanks to technology, even small companies can compete with large companies. It is important to grow your IT infrastructure with time. This will allow you to achieve long term goals. But, this can also cause some difficulties in the future. The concept of technical debt is becoming famous with time.

What is Technical Debt?

Technical Debt was originally coined by Ward Cunningham who is a very famous programmer. It is used to measure the effects or implementing easy solutions or using shortcuts instead of going for a long-term solution. This will help developers in fixing the short term problem. Thus, this term is becoming more significant during the software development process. If you are using shortcuts, then it can create incompatibilities and bugs in your system. Companies compare the cost of fixing these bugs with the interest in financial debt.

It is also known as design debt. Most companies try to avoid technical debt. But, sometimes it is impossible to avoid it. Technical debt also has problems similar to financial debt. If you are not reducing your technical debt, then it will become hard to manage. Bugs and incompatibilities during the development process have a compounding effect on your budget. It is similar to the interest on a loan. This can increase the amount of effort and time your IT team will spend on managing your system. Technical debt can reduce your employee efficiency.

Examples of Technical Debt

It is difficult to technical debt by reading its definition. Thus, this simple example will help you in understanding the main concept. Imagine that you have a software development team that is working on a new mobile game or application. They are using scrum methodology for developing your application. In starting, your team will struggle to make some important functions work in the app. Your team can write separate code for dealing with this problem. But, they require two extra weeks for writing this custom code. You need your application ready in the next few days. Due to the strict timeline, your team will work on a temporary fix. This may create some bugs in your application.

The decision to use simple solutions or shortcuts gives rise to technical debt. Sometimes the solution will work. But, it can also create many bugs in your application. Due to the strict timeline, your team was forced to use shortcuts. Your team will accommodate the remaining development process to work with the suboptimal solution.

Once the deadline is met, your team can create an optimal solution in two weeks. But, the cost-benefit analysis and pressure from team leaders will force them to work on other solutions. Thus, your team won’t find time to write the custom code for core function. They will focus on other functions for meeting the next deadline. Now, they will be forced to use more shortcuts for dealing with new bugs. Due to this, the technical debt of your applications will increase quickly. If there are too many bugs in your application, then your team will be forced to start over from scratch.

It is important to measure your technical debt. Technical debt is mostly measured in TDR or technical debt ratio. It is the ratio of the time to fix the bugs to the time to create a system from scratch. You should focus on keeping this ratio down. If your TDR ratio is low, then your development cost will automatically go down. Your TDR ratio must be less than 5. You can follow the below steps for reducing your technical debt:

Improve your Documentation

First, you must understand the root cause of your technical debt. If you are designing any application, then you must create its documentation first. If your IT department is not maintaining the documentation, then it will become difficult to find the root cause of the problem. It is important to create a record of known issues and changes. This becomes extremely important when you are dealing with legacy or old systems.

Automate the Testing Process

It is important to automate your testing process. This will help you in reducing your technical debt. If you are manually testing your system, then it will be very inefficient. Your team will spend a huge time on testing your applications. The automated testing process will help you in testing your subject configurations. Many organizations think that it is hard to set up automated testing tools. But, there are many benefits of automating your testing process. Automated testing tools will help you in reducing your technical debt. Thus, it will help you in saving both money and time.

Refactor Regularly

Modern applications and systems undergo frequent patches and updates. Developers are adding new functionality to their applications. Also, security patches will help you in addressing security issues. However, every patch and update can increase your technical debt. Organizations are moving from an on-premises solution to cloud infrastructure. Thus, they use shortcuts for making their legacy systems compatible with the new solutions. You should refactor your systems after a regular interval. This will ensure that your code is streamlined. It will also optimize your system performance. Hence, it will help you in reducing your technical debt with time.

Conclusion

You should take a proactive approach to minimize your technical debt. It is important to grow your organization with time. Sometimes short term solutions can create long term problems for your organization. This is more important for medium-sized companies that are moving to cloud solutions. If you have less technical debt, then you can easily migrate to cloud technology. Technical debt is similar to financial debt. Still, most companies ignore the technical debt. This can create bugs and irregularities during the development process. It is important to manage your technical debt. Reducing your technical debt will help you in scaling your business. If you want more tips regarding reducing your technical debt, then you contact Bleuwire.

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