Tech debt can be really overwhelming. Often when you start to address it, you realize you’re only just scratching the tip of the iceberg. It doesn’t have to be an insurmountable problem, understanding how to prioritize the right issues will enable you to turn the boat around. Join us in hosting Alexandre Omeyer, CEO & Co-founder at Stepsize. For the first time he will be walking us through his incredible research, which includes interviews with 200+ software engineers. In this webinar you will learn: - How to define and understand tech debt. - The tactics for dealing with tech debt head on. - Implementing processes and tools to use when dealing with small, medium, and large pieces of tech debt. - How to think and approach tech debt depending on your company’s stage, size, business priorities, and culture. Watch the webinar on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnizCRe-sV8

2. How to deal with tech debt:
Lessons learned from the best
engineering teams
ProdPad Webinar

3. Lessonsfrom200+Interviews

4. WHy is
tech
debt a
thing?
Today’s
plan
How tech debt comes to be
What it costs businesses
Myths to debunk
How to manage tech debt well

5. What is
tech
debt?
‘Technical debt is code written
yesterday that’s a burden today.’
—Me

7. Why is
tech
debt a
thing?
‘Software exists in a world of
uncertainty.’
—Martin Fowler

8. Why is
tech
debt a
thing?
‘[...] it can take a year of
programming on a project
before you understand what
the best design approach
should have been.’
—Martin Fowler

9. Martin Fowler
TechDebtQuadrant
Deliberate
Reckless Prudent
Inadvertent
“We dont
have time for
design”
“We must ship
now and deal
with the
consequences”
“What’s
Layering?”
“Now we know
how we should
have done it”

10. Martin Fowler
TechDebtQuadrant
Deliberate
Reckless Prudent
Inadvertent
“We dont
have time for
design”
“We must ship
now and deal
with the
consequences”
“What’s
Layering?”
“Now we know
how we should
have done it”

11. Myths to
debunk
Tech debt is bad and no one
should ever take any on.

12. Myths to
debunk
Tech debt is bad and no one
should ever take any on.

13. Myths to
debunk
Tech debt is only engineering's
problem.

14. Myths to
debunk
Tech debt is only engineering's
problem.

15. Myths to
debunk
Managing tech debt properly
will slow us down.

16. Myths to
debunk
Managing tech debt properly
will slow us down.

17. WHy is
tech
debt a
thing?
Why
bother?
‘By 2024, global technical debt
that has not been remediated
will double, totalling $4 trillion.’

18. WHy is
tech
debt a
thing?
Why
bother?
‘Through 2023, I&O leaders that
actively manage and reduce
technical debt will achieve at
least 50% faster service delivery
times to the business.’

19. WHy is
tech
debt a
thing?
Why
bother?
‘Engineers spend ~33% of their
time dealing with technical
debt which crushes team
morale and costs companies
~$85Bn/year.’

20. Why
does it
matter?
Poor quality code slows
everyone down within weeks.

21. Tech
debt
impacts
everyone

22. WHy is
tech
debt a
thing?
Is your software critical to your business?
Is its cost of failure high or low?
What is your business objective?
Are you pre or post P/M-fit?
Are you working on a greenfield project?
Can one human understand your entire system?
How many engineers work at the company?
How old is your codebase?
Does company leadership understand tech debt?
Your
tech
credit
score

23. Culture
& tech
debt
Ownership is a leading indicator
of engineering health.
—Gareth Visagie, Chief Architect at Snyk

24. Culture
& tech
debt

25. Culture
& tech
debt

26. Tech
debt
budgets

27. Tech
debt
Worth
paying
back

28. Is the debt small,
medium, or large?

29. Small debt: follow the
boyscout rule
Always leave the code better than you found it.
—Robert C. Martin a.k.a Uncle Bob

30. Medium debt: go
through sprint planning
Consider how much time PMs spend curating the set of features to work on.
Do the same for tech debt.
—James Rosen, Engineering Manager at Everlane

31. Document your debt, and
quantify its cost to the
business.
How?

32. Identify tech debt in the way of
sprint stories during planning
and add it to the scope.
How?

33. Large debt: have a
quarterly meeting
Include all Engineering and Product leaders.
Engineering Managers present the business case for large pieces of debt.
Tech debt to be addressed is then added to the roadmap.

34. Which items on your product roadmap
will be slowed down or impossible
because of this debt?
Will the debt get worse if unaddressed?
How quickly and how much worse?
What has this debt cost the business so
far?
Making
the biz
case

35. WHy is
tech
debt a
thing?
takeaways
Tech debt is inevitable and can be used to
gain leverage.
Manage tech debt carefully or it will
manage you.
Create an engineering culture of
ownership.
Include tech debt in your Agile processes.

36. SaaS to manage tech
debt
Directly from the tools you use
Report on debt
Identify technical debt that will
get in the way of your roadmap
and address it before it does.
‍
Integrates with all your tools.
Keeps your workflow intact.
Sign up on stepsize.com

37. SaaS to manage tech
debt
Identify technical debt that will
get in the way of your roadmap
and address it before it does.
‍
Integrates with all your tools.
Keeps your workflow intact.
Sign up on stepsize.com
Quantify the debt’s impact
Link your feature work
Tyrion reported to be slow to run and log
warnings about performance & resource
used

38. Keywords
identified
Related Types of
Tech debt Surfaced
Scope defined
& Recorded
Align tech debt with feature work
SaaS to manage tech
debt
Identify technical debt that will
get in the way of your roadmap
and address it before it does.
‍
Integrates with all your tools.
Keeps your workflow intact.
Sign up on stepsize.com

39. Ready to watch your
team reach new
heights?
Join us and blast through
what's holding them back
Sign up on stepsize.com