Managing Technical Debt in Coding Projects

Taking on Technical Debt may seem like a good idea in the short term, but it is essential to consider the ability to make changes in the future.

When working on a coding project, it can be challenging to maintain a clean code base due to time constraints from management and company demands. It is essential to identify areas of technical Debt and develop specific strategies for dealing with them. Accumulating more Technical Debt requires strict discipline, including focusing on testing, pairing, and refactoring to maintain a clean code base.

It is crucial to remember that Technical Debt should not be used as an excuse to create chaos.

It can be challenging to determine if we are dealing with Technical Debt or simply a messy code.

Technical Debt allows for rapid delivery but must come with a Clean Code. Therefore, when making changes to a code base, it is essential to consider if the code is clean, tested, has a learning goal or event, has a payback plan, and is informed.

[¹]: Software Design X-Rays: Fix Technical Debt with Behavioral Code Analysis