Technical Debt Patterns

(More details – article Know and Manage the Technical Debt, Software Development Journal)

Prevention_Versus_Correction 

• We should focus continuously on quality by adopting “built-in” quality versus “inspected-in” quality. In fact, the “test&fix” approach will give a temporary quality and will hide the debt. Finally, it is pretty naive to address quality only by test & fix.

Levels_of_Design_Versus_Debt 

• Because TD is related to software design, it is also related to the Levels_of_Design, where each level could introduce – more or less – its own part of technical debt. Here are some levels (others could also be taken into consideration):

• Coding style
• Clean code rules
• Design decisions in context
• Architecture decisions

No_trade_for_basic_levels 

• “Bad code is always imprudent.” says Robert C. Martin 

 Methodology_Induced_Debt 

• Use context-adapted iterative approach, that mean the right design strategy in the context.
• Agile techniques: Clean Code (“prefactoring”), Refactoring, TDD (pay the debt early)
• Risks-driven techniques: Architecture-driven approach.

 Avoid_Mega_Debts 

• The cost of a such debt could be exponentially higher then of the normal debt. Examples:
• Refactoring nightmare by Interfering_Debts (such unsearchable names + “duplicate” code); 
• Envious_Monster – mega components that present “”feature envy” for many other components;
• Big_Design_Elements 

 Register_the_debt 

• In order to manage and pay the debt , you should know and register the debt

Manage_Mega_Debts_First 

• Big, important and messy – that is an explosive problem.

Define_and_Use_Thresholds 

• Beyond applying metrics, should be associated some risks thresholds to some significant metrics.

Search_Usual_Suspects 

•  Feature envy, big size, no separation of concerns; searching for them could offer a quick assessment and a quick reaction

Use_Separation_Of_Concerns

• That is the design principle with biggest impact on debt management.

Long_Term_Steadiness

•  See Software Craftsmanship Manifesto

Honest_development

• Clearly define the responsibility of managing the TD