Technical debt is good!

olve.maudal@cisco.com

A 5 minute lightning talk at the ACCU conference

Oxford, April 13-16 2011
Technical Debt Quadrant

http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebtQuadrant.html
"Let's upgrade this external library before the next release instead"
"Let's upgrade this external library before the next release instead"

OR M ED
IN F
"We do not have time to plan these activities"
"We do not have time to plan these activities"

IDIO T IC
"Hmm, this is not as elegant as I hoped for"
"Hmm, this is not as elegant as I hoped for"

B L E
T A
EVI
IN
"What is polymorphism?"
"What is polymorphism?"

E PT
IN
"Ah, now we understand how we should have done it"
"Ah, now we understand how we should have done it"

LEARNIN
G
"Let's copy-paste this code, then fix just what we need"
"Let's copy-paste this code, then fix just what we need"

S T U PI D
"Let's copy-paste this code, then fix just what we need"

S T U PI D E D
SI D E R
CON
"Let us just ship the product, then deal with the
consequeces"
"Let us just ship the product, then deal with the
consequeces"

N A L
T IO
T E N
IN
 O R M E D
IN F
 O R M E D
IN F
ID I O T I C
 O R M E D
IN F
ID I O T I C

B L E
T A
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IN
 O R M E D
IN F
ID I O T I C

B L E
T A
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P T IN
INE
 O R M E D
IN F
ID I O T I C

B L E
T A
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P T IN
INE LEARNIN
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 O R M E D
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ID I O T I C

S T UPI D

B L E
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P T IN
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 O R M E D D
IN F D E R E
I O T I C N S I
ID CO
S T UPI D

B L E
T A
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P T IN
INE LEARNIN
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 O R M E D D
IN F D E R E
I O T I C O N S I AL
ID C I O N
EN T
I D I N T
S T UP

B L E
T A
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P T IN
INE LEARNIN
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 O R M E D D
IN F D E R E
I O T I C O N S I AL
ID C I O N
EN T
I D I N T
S T UP

B L E
T A
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P T IN
INE LEARNIN
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 O R M E D D
IN F D E R E
I O T I C O N S I AL
ID C I O N
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I D I N T
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 O R M E D
IN F I S E
W N AL
TI O
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I N
“The savvy developer treats technical debt just as
the entrepreneur does financial debt. They use it. It
speeds delivery, so long as it is properly
managed.” (quote from a wiki)

(source: http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?TechnicalDebt)
Greed is good!
Technical debt is good!