DEV Community

Vlad Dubrovskis
Vlad Dubrovskis

Posted on

How do you help your teams manage tech debt?

Does your team struggle with technical debt? Or are you always on top of it with the full support of the business?

Are you a leader/product person on the team? Do you help the team with keeping on top of things? Or does the tech debt take a back seat?

Tell me your stories/ideas and experiences.

One of the tips I have and use for teams that use estimation is the following:
If you know that there is tech debt that needs addressing as it has been slowing you down a lot, you can always increase your estimates to allow for that time. As in theory developers use estimates to communicate how long certain features will take, so use the tools available to you to communicate technical debt.

Top comments (1)

Collapse
 
frankfont profile image
Frank Font

All debt is not the same, and all debt does not cost the same to replace.

You touched on a good way of finding debt when you mentioned "slowing you down a lot." That's a sign that something might be worth a discussion.

I'm a fan of removing technical debt by replacing it over a period of time. Many times this is possible on teams I've been a member of, leadership role or not.

For me all this falls into the topic of finishing things quickly. Here are some scribbles on that general topic ... dev.to/frankfont/finishing-fast-4jij