We have all understood Tech Debt wrong!
1 min readFeb 26, 2021
“Shipping first-time coat it’s like going into debt. A little debt speech development so long as it is paid back promptly with a rewrite… The danger occurs when the debt is not repaid. Every minute spent on not-quite-right code count as interest on the debt. Entire engineering organisations can be brought to a standstill under the adept load of N and consolidated implementation.” — Ward Cunningham
- Manny assumes tech debts are a result of “ugly codes”
- though refactoring could solve some of the issues, no refactoring without remodelling!
- A rewrite will end up with the same problems as the original unless you close the understanding gap
- solving tech debt using tech solution is way more manageable and measurable, also rarely end up in conflicts
There are 2 main problems with tech debts:
- The stuff being modelled. The reality has no interests in being modelled, it is messy and organic, slips away and evolve. We are trying to impose structure on something unstructured
- Those doing the modelling. If you remake awful software from scratch without changing the culture that created it you will remake awful software. Corollary to Conway’s law: if you design a system, but you didn’t design the organisation structure, you are not the system’s designer
Key takeaway
- clean codes will not and cannot save a rotten model, clean codes will not and cannot save a rotten model
- we are trying to impose structure on something unstructured
- there are no technical solutions to technical debt (in the speaker’s opinion)