understanding the impact of technical debt on the capacity and velocity of teams and organizations
DESCRIPTION
Slide deck from my talk at the 4th International Workshop on Managing Technical Debt (MTD 2013), part of the 35th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2013). There is an accompanying paper in the conference proceedings. http://SystemAgility.com/ https://twitter.com/ken_power http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenpowerTRANSCRIPT
UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TECHNICAL DEBT ON THE CAPACITY AND VELOCITY OF TEAMS AND ORGANIZATIONS Ken Power, Cisco Systems, Galway, Ireland
4th International Workshop on Managing Technical Debt (MTD 2013)
Options for Investing Capacity
Balanced Investments Investment(of(Team(Capacity(
Technical)Debt)
Quality)Debt)
Features)
Spike)Tests)
Research)
Planning)
Unbalanced Investments Investment(of(Team(Capacity(
Technical)Debt)
Quality)Debt)
Features)
Spike)Tests)
Research)
Planning)
Planned v Unplanned Technical Debt
Insufficient Investment in Debt Reduction
40%$
17%$5%$
38%$
Combined)Feature)Team)Sprint)8)Capacity)Alloca7on)
Features$$
Performance/$Robustness$
Technical$Debt$
Defects$
Mounting Debt Impacts Velocity
When Failure Demand Dominates Throughput
Failure Demand
Value Demand
Planned v Actual Debt Reduction
Technical Debt Impacts Organization Capacity
Business Unit
Product
Team Team
Product
Team Team Team
Conclusions • Visualize Technical Debt • Articulate debt reduction strategies • Consider each strategy as an option • Quantify the impact and benefit of each option • Understand the effect on team, product and organization
velocity • Understand the effect on team, product and organization
capacity
Thank You! • My day job
• Co-Founder, Agile Office at Cisco • Internal Agile & Lean Consultant
• Extra-curricular activities • Fellow of the Lean Systems Society (http://LeanSystemsSociety.org/) • Award-winning publications in Agile and Lean product development • Frequent speaker at major international Agile and Lean conferences • Involved in organizing international Agile and Lean conferences • Industry/academic collaborative research on Agile and Lean software development • Lean Startup Mentor
• Find me online • Blog: http://SystemAgility.com/ • Twitter: @ken_power • LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenpower