This is not Negligence

I got a lot of feedback on my previous article on technical debt and negligence. It seems that calling people negligent stirs up quite some strong feelings.

I want to clear up some misunderstandings.

The original idea of the article was to point out people who use technical debt as an excuse to write shitty code. Those who are careless when they know they should be careful. That’s negligence.

Most people are not like that.

Most people who write shitty code do so accidentally. They don’t realise that it’s bad. They may honestly think it’s the right choice. That’s not negligence. That’s inexperience.

Another misunderstanding came from my partial explanation of technical debt. I only explained it from the perspective of making a conscious choice.

It’s then when people use technical debt as an excuse. I explained the difference between negligence and taking on planned technical debt.

I didn’t talk about unplanned technical debt, which occurs after the fact when new insights are gained. Like a better understanding of the problem or changing requirements. These have little to do with negligence.

Finally, just because you write shitty code doesn’t mean you’re negligent. There are valid reasons to write shitty code. I just don’t think planned technical debt is one of them.