Welcome to the Albuquerque Software
Process Improvement Network!
(ABQSPIN)

July Meeting

Following up on our very successful evening with Esther Derby in June, we will be hosting a joint SPIN and AgileNM meeting this month, presented by our own Frank LaFond. The topic will be:

Topic: Technical Debt

Your software system requires new functionality. There are two ways to do it; the first is faster to implement, but it is messy – it will complicate subsequent enhancements. The second results in a cleaner design, but it will take longer to complete. Which option should you choose?

Ward Cunningham developed the metaphor of “technical debt” to help us think about this problem. In this metaphor, developing quick and dirty solutions saddles us with technical debt, which is similar to financial debt. Like financial debt, the technical debt incurs interest payments in the form of the extra effort required to implement future enhancements. We can continue paying the interest, or we can pay down the principal by refactoring the design. Although it costs to pay down the principal, we gain by reducing interest payments in the future.

This metaphor also explains why it may be sensible sometimes to use the quick and dirty approach. Just as a business incurs debt to take advantage of a market opportunity, development teams may incur technical debt to meet business objectives. The all-too-common problem, though, is that organizations let their technical debt get out of control, spending most of their development effort paying on crippling interest.

(adapted from: http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebt.html)

Frank will be leading a discussion of technical debt, some of its causes, why it can be expedient from a business perspective, research on the issues important to consider when evaluating technical debt and tools available to quantify technical debt. Please come prepared to discuss your experience with debt and how it manifests in your organization (or not).

Who Should Attend

•  Managers who make decisions on incurring technical debt and paying back the interest – especially those managers who don't have a development background

•  Developers who find themselves at odds with the choices their company makes

•  Users who find systems they depend on take a long time to change and often find new defects in previously working functionality

•  Anyone who wants to be in the know on this emerging software process topic

Presenter: Frank LaFond

Frank LaFond has over twenty years experience as a developer, quality assurance engineer and process engineer. He first became interested in software processes in 1987 when he was tasked with creating a software development methodology for his company. Frank is the founder of Agile New Mexico, a working group of SPIN. He has given presentations recently on topics such as technical debt, virtualization, continuous integration, agile and code reviews.

Click HERE for more information or to Register.