Managing Technical Debt in Agile Scrum: Best Practices for Project Management
Strategies to Tackle Technical Debt Head-On and Optimize Agile Scrum Project Management
Technical debt is the accumulation of suboptimal or incomplete solutions in a software project that can slow down the development process and compromise the quality of the product. In agile terminology, agile development heavily relies on speed, however, application features need to function properly to continue development. Even if the application works perfectly, teams will likely accumulate technical debt as they prioritize speed and accelerated delivery over best practices and quality assurance.
When teams scramble to meet sprint deadlines, it usually results in lengthy methods, inefficient routines or low-quality code. If teams emphasize new features over resolving bugs, it also creates a technical debt that will need a resolution before it passes to the next development step.
Agile developers must take responsibility for their work, even if it means admitting they take shortcuts to meet deadlines. Excellence and consistency are integral parts of Agile sprints, but they can come with a cost. Monitor how much technical debt your team accrues and plan to fix it during the product backlog stage.
How can Agile teams manage technical debt effectively and maintain a high velocity of delivery? Here are some best practices to follow.
1. Define and measure technical debt
The first step to managing technical debt is to define what it means for your project and how to measure it. Technical debt can be classified into four types: intentional, unintentional, avoidable, and unavoidable.
Intentional debt is when you deliberately choose a quick and dirty solution to meet a deadline or a requirement, knowing that you will have to refactor it later. Unintentional debt is when you unknowingly introduce errors or inefficiencies in your code due to lack of knowledge, skills, or tools. Avoidable debt is when you could have prevented it by following best practices, standards, or guidelines. Unavoidable debt is when you have to deal with external factors, such as changing requirements, dependencies, or technologies, that force you to adapt your code. You can measure technical debt by using metrics such as code quality, test coverage, defect rate, or customer satisfaction.
2. Prioritize and plan technical debt reduction
The second step to managing technical debt is to prioritize and plan how to reduce it. You can use a matrix to rank technical debt items based on their impact and urgency. For example, you can use the following categories: high impact, high urgency (must fix); high impact, low urgency (should fix); low impact, high urgency (could fix); low impact, low urgency (won’t fix). You can then assign technical debt items to different sprints, depending on your capacity and goals. You can also use techniques such as timeboxing, spikes, or slack time to allocate time and resources for technical debt reduction.
3. Communicate and collaborate on technical debt
The third step to managing technical debt is to communicate and collaborate on it with your stakeholders. You should make technical debt visible and transparent to everyone involved in the project, such as the product owner, the Scrum master, the developers, and the customers. You should explain the causes, consequences, and benefits of technical debt reduction, and seek feedback and alignment on the priorities and plans. You should also foster a culture of collective ownership and accountability for technical debt, and encourage learning and sharing of best practices among the team members.
4. Monitor and review technical debt
The fourth step to managing technical debt is to monitor and review it regularly. You should track the progress and results of your technical debt reduction efforts, and evaluate their impact on your velocity and quality. You should use tools such as dashboards, reports, or charts to visualize and analyze the data. You should also conduct retrospectives at the end of each sprint to reflect on what went well, what went wrong, and what can be improved regarding technical debt management. You should celebrate the successes, learn from the failures, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
5. Prevent and minimize technical debt
The fifth step to managing technical debt is to prevent and minimize it as much as possible. You should adopt a proactive and preventive approach to technical debt, rather than a reactive and corrective one. You should follow the principles of clean code, such as simplicity, readability, modularity, and testability. You should use tools and practices such as code reviews, pair programming, refactoring, testing, or continuous integration and delivery to ensure the quality and maintainability of your code. You should also align your technical vision and architecture with your business goals and customer needs, and avoid over-engineering or under-engineering your solutions.
6. Balance technical debt and velocity
The sixth and final step to managing technical debt is to balance it with your velocity. You should not let technical debt compromise your ability to deliver value to your customers, nor should you let velocity compromise your technical excellence. You should find the optimal trade-off between speed and quality, depending on the context and the expectations of your stakeholders. You should also be flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances, and be ready to revise your technical debt management strategy when needed.
Technical debt isn’t all that bad
Technical debt isn’t always harmful. For example, if the development backlog consists of app improvements rather than fixing bugs, it helps push the application forward.
Still, it’s preferable to avoid technical debt. When teams identify the root causes of the debt, it helps enhance development and prevent these problems in the future.
