Technical debt is a metaphor for the cost of additional rework caused by making bad design or implementation decisions. It’s something that developers need to be aware of, and it can be avoided with good software development practices.

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It’s like when you borrow money from somebody, you have to pay it back with interest. When borrowing money from somebody tends to be difficult or even not possible, then people are more likely to consider taking quick loans or credit : This applies also in the world of programming, where technical debt is incurred when making compromises in favor of short-term software design issues rather than planning for future enhancements and requirements changes .

Technical debt can be compared with financial debt. For example, if a developer needs to implement new features or fix bugs quickly he might skip some testing tasks or shortcuts which will result in an increased number errors once other developers start using that code

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Tackling Technical debt

If you don’t want to get stuck with this form of debt, make sure that new code is tested and follows coding standards like the SOLID principles or Yii Design Patterns etc. Furthermore, documentation should be created together with every feature and task which increases the value of your application for future users. It’s also important to always review and maintain all the existing features and functions in order to stay up-to-date on current requirements and technologies.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many ways yet to repay technical debt, since repayment is only possible by refactoring or rewriting parts of your software .

if you are in the process of refactoring your code with any IDE, then all team members will be able to follow that process due to its collaboration and synchronization capabilities . This way the debt can get repaid faster and cost less effort. Another positive side effect is that functional tests will always use an up-to-date version of your software which increases the quality and stability of your application.

There is also a theoretical concept called Technical Debt Quadrant which describes how technical debt can affect the level of visibility for developers

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Reducing the technical debt

if you want to repay or reduce your technical debt as soon as possible, you should consider the following:

1. Make sure that all new code is well tested and follows coding standards.
2. Create documentation for all new features and tasks.
3. Review and maintain all existing features and functions.
4. Increase your resilience by using modern test automation with Selenium
5. Understand and use the Technical Debt Quadrant to make better decisions about where to focus your efforts.

In the end, it’s important to remember that technical debt is often unavoidable, but with careful planning and execution, it can be minimized and repaid over time. As an Organisation, you need to keep your eye on the ball and avoid letting technical debt build up. Remember that any time spent fixing bugs or trying to fix code now will be saved from those same headaches in the future. Thanks for reading, Ciao soon!