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A seasoned colleague just wrote this and I think it was very valuable:

On tech debt:

So the big challenge with technical debt is making non-technical management (CEO, COO, CFO, directors) understand what it means, and just how it operates. Sometimes it actually makes good sense to incur technical debt to get to market sooner, just as it sometimes makes sense to borrow money to get cash now and repay that loan later with (hopefully) resulting greater revenues from that investment. But just like a loan, tech debt always has to be paid some day. The longer the tech debt goes, the more expensive it gets. And also like a loan, the cost compounds, like compound interest on a loan. Tech debt should always be chosen with a clear plan to pay it off at some point in the not too distant future. The longer one waits to pay it, the more expensive it gets.

Comments
  • 20
    Fully agree, it's how I explained it to my current customer... And finally by hey start to realize what a gigantic debt it is to let tech debt fester for 15+ years...
  • 3
    @molaram He indeed is
  • 2
    I never though about the debt in tech debt, comparing to Money debt is very smart.
    Awesome stuff.
  • 1
    Congratulations! You’ve reached phase one of educating overpaid idiots who make powerful fucking decisions about software WHAT THE FUCK SOFTWARE ACTUALLY IS! For phase two, make the greedily little shits do some exercise like an ROI calculation about their most recent “great idea” and compare the development & support costs vs. the revenue lift from delivery:) Bonus point if you know in advance which director, marketing exec, or sales drone will get fired if they bother to do this.
  • 1
    This type of methapor has been arround for quite some time. But it's good if the idea spreads a bit more.

    https://doi.org/10.1145%2F2160718.2...

    https://youtu.be/pqeJFYwnkjE
  • 2
    tech debt is a kind of a loan, where you start paying the monthly instalments without paying off the original amount
  • 0
    @TheSilent This is awesome!
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