We will work with you and help put a Plan together on your tech debt. Tech debt can be anything things thats backlogged, deviation from original, ongoing.

Here is a quick illustration in words of what a tech debt looks like.

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Handling and managing tech debt effectively requires a structured approach to break down and prioritize tasks, making it visible and actionable. Here’s a guide on how to manage and break down tech debt into visible pieces:

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1. Identify the Sources of Tech Debt Code Quality: Poorly written or overly complex code.Architecture & Design: Inefficient design choices or outdated architecture.Testing Gaps: Lack of sufficient unit or integration tests.Outdated Dependencies: Old libraries, frameworks, or tools.Documentation Debt: Incomplete or outdated documentation.
    

2. Create a Tech Debt Register Just like with bugs or features, create a list to track tech debt. Each entry should include:Description: A clear summary of the debt (e.g., outdated libraries, inefficient algorithms).Impact: The consequences of the debt (e.g., performance issues, scalability problems).Priority/Severity: Use a scale to measure how critical the debt is (e.g., low, medium, high).Effort: Estimate how much time or resources are needed to fix it.Owner: Assign responsibility to a team or person.Tools like Jira, Trello, or Asana can be helpful to create this backlog.
    

3. Categorize Tech Debt Breaking down tech debt into categories makes it easier to prioritize and manage. Some common categories are:Critical (High-impact): Debt that is causing significant issues or bottlenecks.Medium-impact: Debt that affects productivity or performance but is not urgent.Low-impact: Minor inefficiencies that could be improved over time.
    

4. Prioritize Debt Based on Impact To decide what to work on first, prioritize tech debt using the following criteria:Business Value: Debt that hinders the business or product should be fixed first.Frequency of Pain: Fix issues that developers encounter often, slowing down their work.Future Scalability: Focus on debt that could hinder scaling or future enhancements.Use a framework like:Eisenhower Matrix: Organize based on urgency and importance.ROI-based Prioritization: Balance the effort to resolve debt with the expected long-term benefits.
    

5. Break Debt into Manageable Tasks For each item of tech debt, break it down into smaller, manageable tasks:Define the scope of each debt item. For example, if you have legacy code, break it down by components or modules.Tackle small improvements incrementally rather than trying to fix everything at once.Assign time-boxed sprints or designate “tech debt days” where only tech debt is worked on.
    

6. Incorporate Debt into Regular Sprints Integrate tech debt management into your normal sprint or Kanban workflows. For each sprint:Set aside a percentage of time for debt repayment (e.g., 10-20%).Balance between features and debt, so new feature development doesn’t halt, but neither does tech debt get ignored.
    

7. Track and Measure Progress Establish metrics to measure progress, such as:Reduction in bugs or incidents caused by technical debt.Improved performance or scalability metrics after paying down debt.Developer productivity (e.g., code review time, build times).Periodically review your tech debt register to see which areas have improved and which require further attention.
    

8. Communicate Tech Debt to Stakeholders Tech debt is not just a technical issue but a business issue. Make sure non-technical stakeholders understand the impact of tech debt on:Release speed: Tech debt may slow down feature releases.Maintenance costs: Unresolved debt could lead to more bugs and higher long-term costs.Product quality: Debt can degrade user experience, performance, or reliability.
    

9. Set Clear Criteria for Debt Incurrence Avoid accumulating more debt by:Establishing coding standards and best practices.Performing code reviews with an eye on potential debt.Setting limits on the types of shortcuts developers can take.
    

10. Celebrate Wins When tech debt is successfully paid down, highlight these improvements. Show how reducing debt benefits the team and the business, increasing buy-in for future debt work.By breaking down tech debt into visible, actionable pieces and continuously monitoring it, you’ll be able to manage it more effectively and prevent it from slowing down your team or product development.