I live in a city where a certain LRT implementation has gone off the rails.
It’s not going well.
One day it will recover, but until then, all the problems we are currently encountering will continue as we all hold on for the growing pains that are sure to come with it.
That’s where Technical Debt hurts us – not in the code being old, obsolete or hard to maintain – but in the people, the team having to use it.
A local radio show host made the suggestion that we all as developers have one faced with a hill of debt that we can’t get out of while trying to look forward to the next release – “Why don’t we fix the problems with the first line, before starting to build the second one.”
Making that decision is harder than it sounds, but at the end of the day, dealing with technical debt isn’t just about fixing your old software, it’s about showing your users you’re serious about making it better.
The question is are you serious about making it better or getting the next release out the door?
