{"id":11236,"date":"2022-01-18T19:09:34","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T01:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/threecloud.wpengine.com\/?p=11236"},"modified":"2024-04-17T13:54:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T20:54:58","slug":"youre-drowning-in-technical-debt-know-the-true-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/resources\/youre-drowning-in-technical-debt-know-the-true-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"You\u2019re\u00a0Drowning in Technical Debt:\u00a0\u00a0Know the True\u00a0Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0<\/span><\/span>a\u00a0<\/span><\/span>previous article<\/span><\/span>\u00a0from our\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Drowning in Technical Debt<\/span><\/span>\u00a0series, we defined technical debt and discussed how it can creep into your organization and make you less competitive. Now, we\u2019re digging even deeper into\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the hidden costs that make<\/span><\/span> technical debt so serious and how, left unchecked, it can grind your organization to a halt.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

True Cost of Technical Debt #1:<\/span>\u00a0Trapped Value<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Great\u00a0<\/span>business<\/span>\u00a0leaders\u00a0<\/span>look\u00a0<\/span>beyond the\u00a0<\/span>mo<\/span>st<\/span>\u00a0commonly a<\/span>cknowledged<\/span>\u00a0costs of technical debt\u2013lower velocity, higher defect rates,\u00a0<\/span>and more<\/span>\u2013to the\u00a0<\/span>many ways that\u00a0<\/span>value can become trapped\u00a0<\/span>because<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>it.<\/span>\u00a0For\u00a0<\/span>spotting\u00a0<\/span>value trapped in the system<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>which results<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>from high technical debt<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>listen for these kinds of statements\u00a0<\/span>bubbling up among<\/span>\u00a0development\u00a0<\/span>and IT\u00a0<\/span>teams:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • \u201cWe can\u2019t do that yet<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0because that area of the system breaks\u00a0<\/span>whenever<\/span>\u202fwe touch it.”\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • \u201cOur testers spend 90%<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>of their time performing regression tests.”\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • \u201cThe business\u202fdoesn\u2019t\u202funderstand that the system we\u2019re building on top of has tons of landmines that slow us down.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The trapped value these sentiments signal can manifest as decreased flow through your system.<\/span>\u00a0Things may take twice as long as planned, with your team having to update multiple code bases<\/span>, address hardware redundancies, and add more and more vendors and integration points to an already complex system. O<\/span>r<\/span>, your<\/span>\u00a0team\u00a0<\/span>can\u00a0<\/span>get<\/span>\u00a0bogged down by manual processes or supporting work arounds from the Frankenstein system that has been created and the firefighting\u00a0<\/span>required<\/span>\u00a0to support it.<\/span>\u00a0Overall, your organization\u2019s total cost of ownership for the system can start to spike thanks to these indirect costs, threatening the ROI of your product or service.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    True Cost of Technical Debt\u00a0<\/span>#2: Tanking Team Morale<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

    In the long run, technical debt and trapped value will\u00a0<\/span>also\u00a0<\/span>lead to lower team morale. People will hate working with your code base and\u00a0<\/span>possibly\u00a0<\/span>even your product.\u00a0<\/span>When bright and talented people<\/span>\u00a0spend\u00a0<\/span>loads of<\/span>\u00a0time fixing bugs and defects that they were forced to create to meet unrealistic deadlines, they<\/span>\u2019ll<\/span>\u00a0never get a chance to exercise their creative\u00a0<\/span>side\u00a0<\/span>and solve customer problems.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    You might be thinking, \u201cI don\u2019t love every aspect of my job, either.\u201d But in this<\/span>\u00a0digital age, we need to\u00a0<\/span>think of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>a\u00a0<\/span>development team\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>s one of\u00a0<\/span>an organization\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0most expensive assets.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0Attrition<\/span>\u2013<\/span>related to\u00a0<\/span>high-debt\u00a0<\/span>systems\u00a0<\/span>that\u00a0<\/span>handcuff\u00a0<\/span>your technical<\/span>\u00a0talent<\/span>\u2013<\/span>is going to be<\/span>\u00a0more costly than addressing your tech<\/span>nical<\/span>\u00a0debt<\/span>, overall<\/span>. Plus, as\u00a0<\/span>author Daniel Pink<\/span>\u2019s research attests,\u00a0<\/span>people<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>who have autonomy, mastery, and purpose will accomplish far more than simple order takers.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So how does an organization avoid these unexpected but all-too-real costs of technical debt? In our next post in this series, we\u2019ll look at understanding your technical debt credit score. All organizations will incur some amount of technical\u00a0debt, but\u00a0avoiding the potentially devastating situations above is all about quantifying how much you\u2019re accruing and\u00a0making a plan\u00a0for paying it down.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In\u00a0a\u00a0previous article\u00a0from our\u00a0Drowning in Technical Debt\u00a0series, we defined technical debt and discussed how it can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":11444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[262],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azure-strategy-management","topics-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}