.webp)
Its typical consequence is a significant slowdown in development, which the store, marketing or the head of the product is not happy about. The impossibility of rapid change often leads to an outflow of customers (this is confirmed by our experience), which can — and usually does — have a major impact on business results. In addition, development often becomes more expensive because of it. In some cases, the situation even leads to the departure of developers dissatisfied with the functionality of the application.
What Technology Debt Looks Like From a User's Perspective
- Falling applications
- slow loading of content
- unfinished functions
- security risk — the user is not likely to see this, but when sensitive data is leaked, the customer usually disappears with it
- From practice: We also encountered a situation where a client, due to an outdated system for managing user accounts, was not able to quickly and efficiently check in customers.
Of course, this leads to a lot of frustration on the part of the user -- and the search for alternatives, that is, the use of a competitor's product.
3 Top Reasons Why Technology Debt Needs to Catch Up
- ability to deliver better service (satisfied user = better business results)
- cost savings on customer support or staff
- ahead of the competition
Where tech debt arises
- Outdated technology. One of the reasons may be purely historical, when code or technology becomes an obsolete part of the project preventing the development of new functionalities and making changes faster.
- MVP as soon as possible. Especially for start-ups that quickly need MVP (Minimum Viable Product), we often encounter rapid product development at the expense of code quality. After releasing an app and testing that there is market interest in the product, the start-up stops investing time and money to catch up with technology debt.
How to start removing debt
We have a wealth of experience in the transition from old technologies to new ones. Here are 5 important steps to guide you if you want to start tackling the tech debt of your web or mobile app:
1 — Identify the problem
At the beginning of any project, you need to start with an analysis of the current state of technology debt mapping. As a rule, the following 3 factors can be to blame:
- Deliberate decision — an example is the aforementioned start-up, which decided to develop rapidly at the expense of code quality
- unintentional decision — arises, for example, from outdated technology that does not allow designing new functionalities
- software disorganization, or entropy — it degrades performance over time because it is not possible to manage and work with the application efficiently
Futured tip: We recommend the text Martin Fowler, which described a four-type classification of technical debt.
2 — Plan
Make a plan for how you will proceed when dealing with technology debt:
- Set clear goals that you want to achieve.
- Create a list of changes that you will monitor across the team.
- Prepare time and price estimates for all the changes described.
Ensure that everyone on the team (business, project stakeholders, designers, developers, QA) understands the situation your project is in and what caused the current state of affairs. Through a joint discussion, you will be able to plan the next steps that will help set the expectations of everyone involved.
3 — Define priorities
The agile approach allows you to make quick changes in a short time with the help of frequent iterations. Thanks to shorter cycles and faster delivery of changes, you are able to gradually manage priority tasks. Don't forget the team Hygiene: Through joint conversations between development and managers (in an agile approach, so-called standups), you ensure the flow of information between all stakeholders, preventing further errors and possible misunderstandings. Of course, meetings will also help you plan your next steps.
4 -- Refactor\ * and mount automated tests
- Ensure that you are clear about the technical specification, objectives and expected outputs when refactoring is planned. Understanding the assignment and change requirements is key to a successful refactoring process.
- Design a sustainable application architecture that allows you to easily manage code, change it easily, and extend it further. For example, you will be able to scale more easily to the number of users or add additional functionality without restrictions.
- Conduct ongoing code reviews to help you spot bugs far before they reach production.
- Use automated tests. Development is more efficient and cheaper due to them. “Fixing bugs right up to production is the most expensive because the developer has to reorient themselves in the code, which again leads to the risk of adding more bugs.” describes Miroslav Oresky in an article you can read hereunder.
- Define code standards to make it clear to everyone how you work with it, and document all activities. You will especially appreciate it in the future, when new colleagues/developers come.
Do not forget that... Even with newly written applications, technical debt begins to accumulate over time, which is a natural phenomenon of software development, such as updating libraries, removing duplicate code, cleaning the code, or completing automated tests. Therefore, be sure to set aside some of your time to refactor newly written code.
\ *Refactoring is a rewrite of existing code and system leading to better functionality and performance of an application.
5 — Optimization and further development
Track changes and optimize the performance of your technology solution. It is necessary to evaluate whether the application is more powerful in terms of response to user requests, whether the implementation time of new functionalities, content loading and other parts that affect the operation of the application has changed. Thanks to optimization, you will be able to move forward faster.
In this case, an agile way of dealing with projects will help you make changes to your application faster while allowing the product team to keep project planning in full control. This is one of the reasons why we like Futured's agile approach so much.
Do you want to ask us something?
Do you want to learn how to reduce technology debt specifically in your case or do you want to consult? Schedule a free consultation at Matěj Gajdošech, which together with you will look at the technological needs of your product: matej.gajdosech@futured.app & +420 777 900 617
About Futured.
Futured is a leading provider of mobile and web solutions that benefit millions of people around the world. We believe that most user needs start on a mobile device these days, which is why we help our customers transfer solutions from mobile devices to other platforms. Follow us on LinkedIn Profile.
.webp)
%20(2).webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.avif)
