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Understanding Tech Debt 🧐

How to measure, prioritise, and tackle technical debt

How to be an Effective Boy/Girl-scout Engineer

How to be an Effective Boy/Girl-scout Engineer

Most engineers have heard of the 'boyscout rule': 'Always leave the code better than you found it.' But if it's that simple, why isn't everyone doing it, to curb tech debt once and for all? You guessed it, it's not that simple. So let's figure out why—and what we can do about it.

  • Alexandre Omeyer
    Alexandre Omeyer
5 min read
Track & pay back tech debt straight from VSCode

Track & pay back tech debt straight from VSCode

Identify, prioritise, and pay back technical debt using clear metrics. In today's fast moving world, we have to deliver software quickly and adapt to customer needs. But this means codebases accumulate cruft and

  • Nick Omeyer
    Nick Omeyer
7 min read
7 examples of sneaky tech debt and how to spot them

7 examples of sneaky tech debt and how to spot them

We'll share some examples of technical debt that we've spotted in the wild, to help you identify it in your own codebase—before it catches you off-guard.

  • Alexandre Omeyer
    Alexandre Omeyer
8 min read
How tech debt impacts everyone in the company

How tech debt impacts everyone in the company

In this article, we'll go through the meta-problems caused by tech debt, and discuss exactly how they affect each area of any software business. This will give you the tools to alleviate a lot of the pressure your engineers have to deal with.

  • Alexandre Omeyer
    Alexandre Omeyer
8 min read
4 habits every engineering team needs to beat tech debt

4 habits every engineering team needs to beat tech debt

There are plenty of ways to avoid the dreaded technical bankruptcy. To separate effective from ineffective solutions, we need to gain a deep understanding of the forces at play and their roots in sociology, criminology, and game theory.

  • Alexandre Omeyer
    Alexandre Omeyer
6 min read
The simple reasons tech debt is inevitable

The simple reasons tech debt is inevitable

Tech debt is just a thing that happens, right? We start writing code, tech debt accumulates, and bam, there's suddenly too much of it. But does it have to be like this? Are there some fundamental laws of software development that make it so? Can we bend these laws to our advantage?

  • Alexandre Omeyer
    Alexandre Omeyer
5 min read
A broader definition of technical debt

A broader definition of technical debt

Given our broader definition of tech debt, the only real solution is to continuously address the most pressing technical debt as we continue to deliver features at pace for our customers. That's the tech debt that we know for sure will slow us down today, or soon.

  • Alexandre Omeyer
    Alexandre Omeyer
4 min read
3 tech debt metrics every engineer should know

3 tech debt metrics every engineer should know

Today, we’re sharing with you some of the best, tried and tested, scientific methods to measure technical debt. You too will be able to get quantitative data to back up your intuitions about technical debt in your company’s codebase.

  • Nick Omeyer
    Nick Omeyer
8 min read
How to stop wasting engineering time on technical debt

How to stop wasting engineering time on technical debt

You know how it is. It’s already hard enough to squeeze everything you need into a sprint without trying to find an extra 10%–20% of engineering time to pay back technical debt. If you’ve ever argued for carving out time for this, you know that it can feel like a crusade of epic proportions.

  • Alexandre Omeyer
    Alexandre Omeyer
5 min read
The one cultural characteristic you need for a healthy codebase

The one cultural characteristic you need for a healthy codebase

It’s easy to pay lip service to company culture. But few companies actively consider those few cultural characteristics that make a meaningful difference to performance—because that’s the hard part. For

  • Alexandre Omeyer
    Alexandre Omeyer
7 min read
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