Workshop on technical debt
From Matt Heusser:
Personally, I believe that the “technical debt” metaphor is compelling. It explains the tradeoffs involved in taking shortcuts in terms that management can understand, and can take the vague and undefined and turn it into something more concrete.
At the same time, it is not a perfect metaphor, it has weaknesses, and we have a lot more to explore. For example:
- How do you measure technical debt?
- How do you communicate it?
- How do you reverse it?
- How do you avoid it?
- Is reversing or avoiding technical debt always the right thing to do?To get to some more satisfying answers, Steve Poling and I will be organizing a peer workshop on Technical Debt on August 14/15. The event is hosted by the Calvin College CS Department and free to participants. Seating is limited to fifteen (at most, twenty) people and is by application.
The Call for Participation is available on-line:
http://www.xndev.com/downloads/WOTD_2008_CFP.rtfThe announcement is available on my blog.
If you’ve got some experiences to share, some stories to relate, or you would just like to explore the issue some more, I would encourage you to apply.