As many of us do, I have a much longer “To be Read” list than I have hours in the day to read. That said, I have a set of books I really plan to get through this summer, and I thought I would share (hey, it works for Bill Gates!). People who know me know I read, a lot. However I always fall into the trap of reading nothing but technology and business books. So in this list, I am trying force myself to include some broader material into my summer. The list is in no particular order, though.
This is one of those “not directly work related” books on my list (and really is first in my queue). Richard Wagamese (1955–2017) was an accomplished Canadian author and journalist of Ojibwe descent. He is best known for his works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry that explore themes of indigenous identity, trauma, and healing. Wagamese’s writing was deeply influenced by his personal experiences, including his struggles with homelessness and addiction.
In One Drum, Wagamese delves into a rich tapestry of Ojibway wisdom, known as the Grandfather Teachings. The book guides readers through essential life lessons—humility, respect, and courage. Beyond mere lessons, it also outlines accessible ceremonies, designed for anyone, in any location, solo or in a group setting. These ceremonies serve as practical tools to cultivate unity and interconnectedness.
Purely a fun read. I have read Stranger in a Strange Land many times, but it has probably been 20 years. This has always been my favourite Heinlein novel, as it is full of provocative (especially for when it was written) ideas on religion, politics and sexuality.
I recall the first time I read it, I was in grade 9 and had chosen it for a book report for school. When I showed it to my English teacher, he looked very concerned and asked, “Do you parents know you are readying this?” Of course they did – my mother recommended it!
Ok, back to work! The CheckList Manifesto is an exploration of the role checklists can play in our professional and daily lives. The book asserts that checklists serve as a shield against failures, raising the bar for baseline performance. However, it also emphasizes that checklists are merely aids, and their efficacy is dependent on their utility; if a checklist does not help in accomplishing a task, it’s not fit for purpose.
I am looking at it from the perspective of “how can this help me tune processes in development and support?” Never know where you might find useful tools.
Build by Tony Fadell is essentially about “how to build a transformative product-based business”. Fadell, known for his pivotal role in the creation of the iPhone and the founding of Nest, a smart home device company later sold to Google for billions, shares his unique journey and invaluable insights. The book charts Fadell’s career trajectory, including his early failures in smartphone development before the groundbreaking success of the iPhone, but it also promises advice for success at all career stages and tips for building successful product-based businesses and teams. The book provides a comparative analysis of Fadell’s guidance with the advice of other experts in the field, presenting a comprehensive resource for those aiming to create successful products, businesses, and teams.
I am of two minds on this one, as I find these books are often way too anecdotal and seem to degenerate into “war stories” and “how cool were we” stories. Trying to keep an open mind though!
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language by renowned Harvard psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker, argues that human beings acquire language primarily through an instinctual process. This instinct, which is guided by human instruction, naturally evolves as infants grow within their communities. Pinker’s work explores the fascinating intersection of linguistics, psychology, and child development, asserting that our capacity for language is not solely a learned skill but a fundamental human instinct.
This is another just-for-fun entry in the list. I have always been fascinated by language, how it developed, and specifically how it relates to our thought processes (is language necessary for cognitive thought? did intelligence come before language or did they co-evolve? Does the language we we think in constrain what/how we think?). This book is from 1994 but should still be interesting.
More just-for-fun reading! The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli is an exploration into the concept of time. In this work of philosophical science, Rovelli contends that time is not a constant or universally accepted entity as dictated by natural or scientific laws. Instead, he proposes that time is an illusion, sculpted by our individual realities and experiences. This innovative perspective invites readers to reconsider their understanding and perception of time.
Just something to keep my brain busy on a Saturday night!
Ok, pure work book here. I read a lot about “architecture” but tend towards discussions of specific architectures, practical considerations, pros and cons, etc. It has been a while since a I read about architecture in a broader, more general sense. I may actually have read all or part of this before, but anything by Robert C. Martin is typically worth revisiting.
Clean Architecture: A Craftsman’s Guide to Software Structure and Design by Robert C. Martin, also known as Uncle Bob, presents a set of universal rules of software architecture aimed at improving developer productivity across the lifespan of a software system. The book builds on Martin’s previous works, offering not just options, but crucial choices for software success. It is filled with direct solutions to real challenges that could make or break projects. Readers learn what software architects need to achieve, essential software design principles for addressing function, component separation, and data management, and understand programming paradigms that impose discipline by restricting what developers can do. The book also provides guidance on the implementation of optimal, high-level structures for various applications and outlines how to define appropriate boundaries, layers, organize components and services. It discusses common pitfalls in designs and architectures and provides solutions to prevent or correct these failures. This book is considered a must-read for every current or aspiring software architect, systems analyst, system designer, software manager, and programmer.
I came across this book last winter when I was thinking through a number of work-related challenges (replacing my Director of Development who had just moved on to a new opportunity, hiring/developing more senior resources for the dev team, and better defining what a career path in software/technology looks like especially for those not interested in management). I have read parts of this book already, but really want to read it cover-to-cover.
Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track by Will Larson is described as a valuable guide that elucidates the role of a Staff Engineer. Compiled from numerous interviews with established Staff+ engineers, the book offers diverse insights into the paths to becoming a Staff engineer and strategies to flourish at this level. Key ideas include self-scaling and growth, influencing others, and problem-solving. The book emphasizes the importance of writing for clarity and scaling oneself, investing time in high-value work, and balancing this with personal growth. It also underscores the necessity of being present in strategic meetings and taking the initiative to tackle and define problems.
So there is my list for the summer (assuming I do not get distracted by something shiny!). So what’s on your list?
The development process is where ideas transform into software, where the abstract meets the concrete. Yet, it’s also a fertile ground for the accumulation of technical debt. Not addressing technical debt in the development process is akin to ignoring the check engine light on your car’s dashboard. It might not affect your driving in the short-term, but over time, it could lead to serious engine damage and expensive repairs.
So, how can we integrate technical debt management into our development processes? What measures can we take to prevent the accumulation of technical debt? And how can we plan for it without stifling innovation and efficiency? In this post, we’ll delve into these questions, providing you with practical strategies and insights to ensure the sustainability of your software projects.
In the spirit of transparency, our goal here isn’t to eliminate technical debt entirely—that’s an unrealistic aim. Instead, our focus is on effective management and control of technical debt. We’re about to embark on a journey to embed awareness and proactive handling of technical debt into every stage of our development process. By the end of this post, you’ll have the knowledge and tools you need to transform your development process into a lean, debt-aware operation that values long-term sustainability as much as innovation and delivery speed.
All technical debt is not bad – but unmanaged technical debt is.
Join us as we delve into the intricacies of addressing technical debt in the development process, a critical aspect of software development that can no longer be ignored.
Understanding the Agile Development Process and Sources of Technical Debt
To address technical debt effectively, we must first comprehend the terrain on which it’s most likely to arise: the development process.
Agile methodologies, such as Scrum, have reshaped how we build software, favouring iterative, incremental development that delivers continual value to users. However, this approach also introduces new ways that technical debt can accumulate if not carefully managed.
Here are the key stages of the Agile development process and the potential sources of technical debt within each:
1. Product Backlog Creation: This initial stage involves defining and prioritizing user stories that describe the features, improvements, and fixes the software should deliver. Vague user stories can lead to ‘requirements debt’, where misunderstandings or shortcuts during development give rise to future problems. It is critical to make sure the user stories are complete and well defined and that the Product Owner is available to help resolve any uncertainties during the sprint. For work not well understood, use spike tickets to resolve uncertainty before proceeding.
Vague, poorly defined requirements build in technical debt before development even starts
2. Sprint Planning: During this stage, teams select a set of user stories to work on in the next sprint (typically a 2-4 week period). The desire to deliver as many features as possible can result in over-commitment, leading to rushed development and compromised code quality. As discussed below, make sure to take a balanced approach to sprint planning.
3. Sprint Execution: This is where user stories become functional software. Technical debt can quickly accumulate here, especially if there’s pressure to meet sprint deadlines, a lack of adherence to coding standards, and insufficient code reviews. Additional sources of debt include:
Maintenance Debt: Neglecting routine maintenance, such as upgrading libraries or updating infrastructure, can lead to outdated systems that hinder performance and expose security vulnerabilities.
Documentation Debt: Insufficient documentation makes it harder for team members to understand the software, slowing down development and increasing the risk of errors.
Testing Debt: Insufficient testing due to time constraints can allow bugs to slip into production, impacting software quality and user experience.
Code Debt: Neglecting to allocate time for meaningful refactoring—the process of improving existing code without changing its behaviour—can lead to a complex, hard-to-understand codebase.
4. Sprint Review & Retrospective: Here, the team showcases the software increment to stakeholders and reflects on their process. Ignoring these stages can lead to ‘process debt’, where ineffective practices continue unaddressed, leading to poor quality output or slower progress.
5. Product Increment Deployment: The software increment is made available to users. Debt can be incurred if deployment practices are inefficient or the software’s interaction with the production environment isn’t thoroughly tested.
Understanding the Agile process and where technical debt can arise is the first step in effectively managing it. By integrating technical debt considerations into each stage of the Agile development process, we can prevent its accumulation and ensure the long-term health and sustainability of our software projects. In the next section, we’ll delve into specific strategies for doing just that.
Balancing New Development, Ongoing Maintenance, and Debt Repayment in the Agile Process: A Financial Portfolio Analogy
In the Agile process, managing technical debt is akin to managing a financial portfolio (here is a good discussion of this analogy). The resources—your team’s time, your budget—are your income, which must be wisely allocated to cover ongoing maintenance, new development, and debt reduction.
Here’s how we can approach this resource management challenge:
1. Product Backlog Creation & Sprint Planning: As we create user stories and plan our sprints, we must understand that each user story not only represents a new feature but also potential sources of technical debt. Consider the necessary resources to develop the feature, maintain ongoing quality, and address potential debt. In addition, not all capacity should be committed to “new” work. Remember to invest in avoiding and paying down debt. Where a decision is made to incur debt in order to achieve some strategic goal, that decision should be transparent, conscious and carefully considered.
Where a decision is made to incur debt in order to achieve some strategic goal, that decision should be transparent, conscious and carefully considered.
To balance these needs, we can split our resource allocation into three categories:
New Development (Investing for the Future): This covers resources dedicated to building new features and functionality. Like investing money in stocks, bonds, or real estate for future growth, developing new features increases our product’s value and competitive edge.
Ongoing Maintenance and Debt Prevention (Expenses): Allocate resources for tasks aimed at maintaining the quality of our codebase and preventing new technical debt. This is akin to managing routine expenses in our financial life. It includes comprehensive testing, code reviews, updating documentation, performing routine maintenance like upgrading libraries and infrastructure—these are our ongoing “expenses,” necessary to keep our software running smoothly.
Debt Repayment (Debt Reduction): Dedicate a portion of resources to addressing known technical debt. Similar to setting aside funds to repay financial debts, this involves tasks like refactoring code, updating outdated libraries, or improving inefficient processes—paying down our “principal” to reduce our “interest.”
2. Sprint Execution: During the sprint, continue to balance these three categories of resource investment. Monitor progress closely to ensure that maintenance, debt prevention, and repayment tasks aren’t being overlooked or rushed due to the pressure of new feature development.
3. Sprint Review & Retrospective: After each sprint, evaluate how well you balanced resource allocation. Did you maintain ongoing quality effectively? Were you able to reduce existing debt? Did new feature development progress as planned? Use these insights to adjust your approach in the next sprint. Preferably, there are metrics in place to not only measure velocity, but what portion of the velocity is in each area (investment, maintenance, debt repayment).
It is critical to take a conscious, balanced approach to managing and paying down technical debt.
Just like managing a financial portfolio, the goal is to strike the right balance. If we over-invest in new development at the expense of ongoing maintenance and debt reduction, we risk accumulating crippling technical debt. On the other hand, if we neglect new development, our product might fail to deliver fresh value to users and lose ground to competitors.
This balancing act is not a one-time effort but a continuous process of evaluation and adjustment. As your product evolves, your team grows, and your business priorities shift, your approach to managing resources will need to adapt. By maintaining this dynamic balance, we can ensure our software product remains competitive, sustainable, and adaptable to change, all while keeping technical debt in check.
Prioritizing Technical Debt in the Backlog: The Pitfall of Neglecting Debt While Investing
As a Product Owner, your role is akin to a financial manager, not just for an individual, but for a company. You balance the addition of new features (investments for growth), with routine maintenance and debt prevention (operational expenses), and addressing technical debt (debt reduction). However, the allure of investing in new features can often overshadow the less glamorous task of managing technical debt. But, just like a financial manager cannot ignore debt while making massive investments, you too must give due importance to managing technical debt. Here’s how you can incorporate this into your product backlog:
1. Identify and Track Technical Debt (Debt Accounting): Just like a financial manager must keep a precise record of all outstanding debts, you too must ensure all known technical debt is captured and visible in your product backlog. This record-keeping, achieved through collaboration with your team during Agile ceremonies like retrospectives and reviews, prevents technical debt from becoming a hidden liability.
2. Prioritize Technical Debt (Debt Management): Debts vary in nature and severity, both in finance and code. Prioritize technical debt in your backlog based on its impact on your product, similar to how a financial manager would prioritize debts based on their impact on the company’s financial health.
3. Estimate the Effort (Debt Repayment Plan): Just like budgeting for debt repayment, facilitate your team’s estimation of the effort required to resolve each technical debt item. This aids in planning and resource allocation for the upcoming sprints, ensuring your team’s capacity is not overstretched.
4. Include Technical Debt in Sprint Planning (Balanced Financial Planning): During sprint planning, balance the focus between new feature development and technical debt items. This is similar to a financial manager ensuring a balance between investments and debt repayments. Allocate a portion of the team’s capacity for addressing technical debt, making it an integral part of the sprint’s commitment.
5. Monitor and Reassess Regularly (Financial Health Check): Just as a financial manager regularly reviews financial plans to adjust to changes, you too should reassess your technical debt situation. Are you making progress in reducing your technical debt? Are there recurring sources of debt that indicate a need for changes in your development practices?
Don’t let pressure for new features force you to ignore technical debt!
By embracing this approach, you can avoid the pitfall of prioritizing new feature development at the expense of managing technical debt. Just as over-investing while neglecting debt repayment can lead to financial instability, focusing solely on new features while ignoring technical debt can lead to unsustainable code and compromised product quality. Remember, a healthy, high-performing product requires balanced investment, operational excellence, and effective debt management.
Using Tools to Manage Technical Debt
There are numerous tools available that can aid in the active management of technical debt. These tools approach tech debt by analyzing the source code to identify hotspots or helping software developers track issues in the code editor, and also allow project managers and product owners to understand how they are spending their resources. Let’s discuss some of them and their roles in managing technical debt.
In managing technical debt, several types of tools are commonly used, each with its strengths and weaknesses. The key to successful management is often a combination of these tools, tailored to the needs of the specific project or organization, and rolled-out in alignment with process improvements.
1. Code Analysis and Static Analysis Tools: These are used to automatically analyze the source code and identify potential areas of technical debt. Examples include SonarQube, Checkstyle, and Closure Compiler. Some tools, like Designite, can even detect “design smells”, which are indicative of poor design decisions that could lead to technical debt. However, these tools typically focus on code/test debts and may not effectively address design/architecture debts. They are also often limited to identifying smaller pieces of technical debt and may not provide sufficient context for understanding larger, more complex issues.
2. Project Management Tools: Jira is a familiar example of a project management tools that can be used to track and manage issues related to technical debt. However, these tools primarily identify rather than measure technical debt, and engineers may find them challenging to use due to context-switching between the tool and the code. Nevertheless, extensions are available to enhance the use of these tools, and they can still serve as valuable assets in managing technical debt.
3. Technical Debt Tools: This is a newer category of tools specifically designed to manage technical debt. They aim to make technical debt easy to track, spot, and fix. Stepsize is an example of this type of tool, which allows engineers to track technical debt issues directly from their code editor and integrates with other tools like Jira for better management and prioritization of issues.
4. Artificial Intelligence Tools: Tools like CollabGPT (also from Stepsize) use AI to improve workflow and project management by providing memory of tasks, concise recaps, and practical advice based on events in tools like Jira, GitHub, and Slack. This can help keep teams coordinated and focused on efficient decision-making, which indirectly contributes to managing technical debt. Of course there are new AI-based tools popping up almost faster than you can read about them.
In using these tools, it’s important to note that managing technical debt involves several steps, including identifying, measuring, prioritizing, monitoring, documenting, communicating, preventing, and repaying the debt. Different tools may be more effective at different stages, and using them in combination is often the best approach. It is also essential to note that buying a new tool will not fix your processes or culture, which must be addressed before investing in shiny tools.
Conclusion
Addressing technical debt is a critical part of any software development process. It requires active management and regular attention, much like personal finance. By integrating technical debt management into the Agile/Scrum process, investing the right resources, and utilizing the right tools, we can effectively manage and reduce this debt, leading to healthier and more sustainable software development.
One of the most challenging aspects of dealing with technical debt is that it’s not always visible. It lurks in the codebase, much like an iceberg, where the majority of it is hidden beneath the surface. This is where a culture of continuous improvement and transparency comes into play. Encouraging team members to speak up about areas where technical debt may be accumulating, and providing them with the tools and processes to do so effectively, is crucial.
We’ve discussed the role of the Product Owner in managing technical debt, but it’s important to emphasize that this responsibility extends to the entire team. Developers, testers, designers – everyone involved in the product development process has a part to play. Developers should strive for clean, maintainable code; testers should ensure high test coverage; designers should work towards intuitive and maintainable designs. This collective effort will go a long way in preventing and managing technical debt.
The use of tools is also paramount in handling technical debt. These tools provide a systematic way to identify, measure, and monitor technical debt. They can help visualize debt in the codebase, making it easier to understand and manage. But remember, tools are just enablers. They facilitate the process, but the primary responsibility lies with the team to use these tools effectively and take appropriate actions based on the insights provided.
The key to managing technical debt lies in striking a balance
The key to managing technical debt lies in striking a balance. It’s about balancing the need to deliver new features with the necessity to maintain a healthy codebase. It’s about balancing the urgency of immediate business needs with the long-term sustainability of the software. This balancing act is not easy, and it requires a nuanced understanding of both the business and technical aspects of the product. But with careful planning, open communication, and a proactive approach, it’s definitely achievable.
As we move ahead, let’s keep the following next steps in mind:
1. Integrating Technical Debt Management into Planning: Ensure that technical debt management is a part of your regular planning process. This includes sprint planning, backlog grooming, and roadmap discussions.
2. Regularly Assessing and Prioritizing Technical Debt: Make it a routine to assess and prioritize technical debt. Use a combination of qualitative assessments and quantitative measures to do so.
3. Investing in Training and Tools: Invest in training your team on the concept and implications of technical debt. Equip them with the right tools to identify, measure, and monitor technical debt.
4. Emphasizing a Culture of Quality and Continuous Improvement: Cultivate a culture where quality is valued and continuous improvement is the norm. Encourage team members to take ownership of their work and be proactive in addressing technical debt.
In our next post, we’ll delve deeper into these next steps. We’ll provide a detailed guide on how to integrate technical debt management into your planning process, how to assess and prioritize technical debt, and how to foster a culture that actively addresses technical debt. We’ll also review some of the top tools in the industry for managing technical debt and provide tips on how to effectively use them.
Managing technical debt may seem like a daunting task, but remember, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s about making consistent strides towards a healthier codebase, and every small step counts.
One of the most significant challenges faced by software companies (and as Watts S. Humphrey, the father of quality in software and CMMI, said two decades ago “Every business is a software business”) is managing technical debt. Adding to the complexity of the problem is the need to make the rest of the business understand what technical debt is, and how the business itself needs to own a significant role in its management..
In this blog post, which is the first in a series, we’ll dive into the definition of technical debt, explore its types and sources, and discuss why it’s essential to manage technical debt effectively.
The goal here is not to explain Technical Debt to CTOs or other people in the technology group(s). I want to try to give you tools and language to help explain technical debt to the business, including the executive team, product management, etc.
What is Technical Debt?
Technical debt, a term first coined by Ward Cunningham in the early 1990s, is a metaphor that represents the additional work and costs incurred by opting for short-term solutions or compromises during software development. These decisions, while perhaps solving an immediate need or meeting a deadline, often lead to long-term inefficiencies and difficulties in maintaining or enhancing the software. Technical debt can be thought of as a metaphor for monetary debt, where borrowing money can help solve immediate financial problems but will incur interest and additional costs in the future
1. Code Debt: This type of debt arises from poor coding practices, such as lack of documentation, inconsistent naming conventions, and overly complex or redundant code.
2. Design Debt: Design debt occurs when the software’s architecture and structure are not well thought out or implemented, leading to an inflexible or inefficient system. Note that Design Debt is not always due to badly executed or poorly selected design – often it can be traced to other problems like poorly defined requirements or time pressure.
3. Testing Debt: Insufficient or ineffective testing can result in undetected issues or vulnerabilities, which become more expensive and time-consuming to address as the software evolves.
4. Documentation Debt: This form of debt is the result of inadequate or outdated documentation, making it difficult for developers to understand, maintain, or expand the system.
Sources of Technical Debt
There are several common sources of technical debt, including:
1. Time Pressure: The need to meet tight deadlines often leads to compromises in code quality and design.
2. Lack of Experience or Skill: Inexperienced or unskilled developers may introduce technical debt through poor coding practices or suboptimal design choices.
3. Changing Requirements: As software requirements evolve, previously sound decisions may become outdated or no longer align with the project’s goals, creating technical debt. As well, efforts to make the system fulfill new and changing requirements can lead to Code and/or Design Debt
4. Legacy Systems: Older systems often accumulate technical debt over time due to outdated technology, deprecated dependencies, or unsupported features. In addition, Legacy Systems can accrue technical debt merely by ignoring ongoing maintenance.
Why Technical Debt Needs to Be Managed
Technical Debt needs to be managed, just as fiscal debt must be. Far too often I see Technical Debt treated as a purely technological problem which it is not. It is a problem which needs to be managed at an organizational level including all departments.
There are valid reasons for taking on Technical Debt. Time to market is often one. Sometimes you have to “do what is necessary” and an 80% solution now is better than a 99% solution 6 months from now. This should be a conscious decision by the business however, not something that is hidden inside the Technology group and complained about by developers.
Taking on Technical Debt without thought simply to achieve what are often arbitrarily defined timelines is not a good strategy. Doing so is like living your whole life on Credit Cards with no thought to how you are going to pay that debt off.
I like to think of any Technical Debt decision in terms of risk and reward:
What are the business benefits or business value we are going to see from this choice (and over what timeline)?
What are the risks we are accepting by taking on this debt?
In addition, no Technical Debt should be accepted without a plan for paying it off.
Unmanaged Technical Debt has a number of impacts (and the longer it is left, the more it compounds, just like your credit cards):
Maintainability: A codebase burdened with technical debt becomes increasingly challenging to maintain, leading to slower development cycles and higher costs.
Scalability: Unmanaged technical debt can limit a software’s ability to scale or adapt to new requirements, stifling growth and innovation.
Quality & Stability: High levels of technical debt increase the risk of defects and vulnerabilities, impacting the software’s overall stability and reliability.
Team Morale: Continually working with a codebase riddled with technical debt can be frustrating and demotivating for developers, leading to reduced productivity and even attrition. Forcing developers to always do sub-par work just to make timelines is a sure way to break their spirits.
In the upcoming series of blog posts, we will delve deeper into the world of technical debt, covering how to identify, assess, and quantify it, as well as addressing it through development processes and cultivating a technical debt-aware culture. Additionally, we’ll discuss aligning technical debt management with business strategy and leveraging it for growth.
Stay tuned for our next post on identifying, assessing, and quantifying technical debt, as we continue to explore this critical aspect of software development.
Monday Morning CTO 