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Making technical debt more manageable

3 min read

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Davs Howard

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"Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of."

Henry Wheeler Shaw

Unfortunately, technical debt is no different.

Over time, tech, processes and frameworks gradually become outdated or obsolete.

Unavoidable when technological advances continue to accelerate so rapidly. In fact, research suggests computing speed and power have been doubling every one and a half to two years since the 1960s.

Which would be fine if devs weren't under so much pressure to release software updates just as quickly.

The thing is, technical debt isn't inherently bad. If anything, it's expected. Even when digital products are scrutinised and vetted before release, some technical debt's inevitable when you're moving so fast.

However, issues crop up when that technical debt is missed or forgotten about - easily done when you're busy fighting fires or getting swept away in that next big release.

To make things worse, no two problems are ever exactly the same. In fact, technical debt comes in all shapes and sizes. And that means it's not always clear what's tripping you up. It could be problems with the code, e.g. Inconsistencies between coding styles or even Node.JS updates that cause the software to break. And as browsers and other technologies are updated, your product could become more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

That's before considering the lofty expectations of users. After all, that's why we're sprinting to update our products in the first place - right?

Well, creeping technical debt can cause your product to suddenly appear broken or "buggy" to visitors. Worrying when research suggests 88% of people will abandon an app because of bugs.

...and never come back.

Okay, breathe. Much like paying off overdue finances, it's all about chipping away at things in chunks.

At Major, we can help you manage your technical debt by:

  • Categorising issues and prioritising tasks - not everything needs to be fixed right away; we'll create a plan to ensure the biggest problems are fixed first.

  • Choosing metrics to measure the impact - this could be application crash data or the number of bugs that are squashed. We'll help you report on how successful you've been in clearing the debt.

  • Continuously improving things for you - for however long you need, we can execute recommendations that ensure you stay ahead of technical debt

Trapped by technical debt? Major has the keys to set struggling software free.

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