As systems become complex, teams can be burdened with technical debt and architectural challenges, slowing development, and ultimately not being as agile and nimble as desired. If not enough attention is paid to technical debt, design problems will creep in until it becomes muddy, making it hard to deliver features quickly and reliably. This workshop discusses ways to sustain development by understating and managing technical debt. We will present the technical debt metaphor including the impact, and how to identify and monitor technical debt.

Max. number of participants: 50

Target Audience: Architects, Technical Managers, Agile Coaches, Developers, POs, Scrum Masters, QA
Prerequisites: Understanding architecture is beneficial though not necessary
Level: Advanced

Extended Abstract:
When building complex systems, it can be easy to focus primarily on features and overlook software qualities, specifically those related to the architecture and dealing with technical debt. Some believe that by following Agile practices—starting as fast as possible, keeping code clean, and having lots of tests—a good clean architecture will magically emerge. While an architecture will emerge, if there is not enough attention paid to the architecture and the code, technical debt, and design problems will creep in until it becomes muddy, making it hard to deliver new features quickly and reliably. Often, the technical debt items are unknown, unmonitored, and therefore not managed, thus resulting in high maintenance costs throughout the software life-cycle. This workshop discusses elements of sustainable development specifically for dealing with technical debt. The main topics that will be explained are the technical debt metaphor and concept, the impact of incurring technical debt, some types of technical debt, and what is not technical; debt. Additionally, we will discuss technical debt that teams may incur, where and how it arises, how to identify, monitor, and manage these debts to pay in the long term, and living with technical debt.