Technical Debt frfr
One of the most confusing things I came across in my early and mid years as an engineer was the answer to the question “What exactly is technical debt”? Go ahead, think about the answers you’ve been given. I’ll list a few cliche’s I’m sure we’ve all heard:
None of that really made sense to me. Sure, ‘legacy’ code that you (did or didn’t) write is always derisively spoken of. That doesn’t make it debt though. Debt is something borrowed, owed, or obligated to. It also typically creates more of itself (exponentially). I went on a crusade to actually define what it actually was.
”Deliberate” kept coming up in my searching and reading. I started to see a pattern forming. Among most of the ‘accepted’ definitions (read: highly commented on blogs, trusted industry thoughts) this was the most common adjective. Makes sense right? Predatory lending aside (a whole other topic I’d love to wax philosophical on…), debt is usually accrued knowingly. Very few people can afford houses outright, but everyone needs a roof over their head (which is a topic for yet another day), so folks take on debt to pay back over time, or, they end up renting a space which can feel like debt. The point is: this was an intentional or deliberate borrow.
So how does this relate to technical debt? Well, my definition of ‘true’ technical debt is code or architecture “taken on deliberately or intentionally, to ship software faster”. Some examples you say?
