Technical Debt Is Like Tetris

You can’t win. You can only control how quickly you lose.

What’s your next move? Screenshots: Emulator Online

Like most people who’ve played it, I love Tetris. I still remember playing it for the first time on a friend’s Nintendo Game Boy. Not only is Tetris one of the best games of all time, it’s an excellent analogue for technical debt. The impacts of technical debt are something I’m deeply familiar with — I deal with them every day.

I’ll also share a personal story of how my team and I reduced technical debt in some billing code, fixing a $1 million-per-year bug.

Tasks are easier in the beginning when complexity is low

Within software companies, product and project managers (PMs) work with software developers to prioritize what code will be written and shipped to customers next. Finishing a Tetris row is like shipping a feature. Shipping a complex feature requires more rows.

Complex features are satisfyingly easy with little technical debt

Often, the business needs (new features, new products) will lead to trade-offs within the code (hacks, shortcuts) in order to ship on time. Or, changes in the product strategy…