Summary
Over time, technical debt affects virtually every significant software project. As software systems evolve, earlier design or code decisions prove to be “not quite right,” gradually becoming impediments that slow down the evolution of the system, or even grind it to a halt. Most software practitioners have experienced this phenomenon, but many feel helpless to address it. In this guide, three leading software engineering process experts introduce empirically validated principles and practices for managing and mitigating technical debt in any software system.
Using real-life examples, the authors explain the forms of technical debt that afflict software-intensive systems, their root causes, and their impacts. Next, they introduce a palette of proven approaches, strategies, methods, and tools for:
- Identifying sources of technical debt in any software system
- Assessing the magnitude of technical debt
- Limiting the introduction of technical debt in the first place
- Reducing the impact of technical debt over time
As software systems mature, the challenge of technical debt has grown, and it has become increasingly urgent for software professionals and their managers to address it head-on. Managing Technical Debt shows them how.
Author Biography
Philippe Kruchten is a professor of software engineering at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He joined academia in 2004, after a 30+-year career in industry, where he worked mostly with large software-intensive systems design in the domains of telecommunication, defense, aerospace, and transportation. Some of his experience in software development is embodied in the Rational Unified Process (RUP), whose development he directed from 1995 until 2003. He’s the author or co-author of Rational Unified Process: An Introduction (Addison-Wesley, 1998), RUP Made Easy: A Practitioner’s Guide (Addison-Wesley, 2003), and Software Engineering with UPEDU (Addison-Wesley, 2003), as well as earlier books about programming in Pascal and Ada. He received a doctoral degree in information systems (1986) and a mechanical engineering degree (1975) from French engineering schools.
Robert Nord is a principal researcher at the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, where he works to develop and communicate effective methods and practices for agile at scale, software architecture, and managing technical debt. He is coauthor of the practitioner-oriented books Applied Software Architecture (Addison-Wesley, 2000) and Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond (Addison-Wesley, 2011) and lectures on architecture-centric approaches. He received a PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University and is a distinguished member of the ACM.
Ipek Ozkaya is a principal researcher at the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. Her primary work includes developing techniques for improving software development efficiency and system evolution, with an emphasis on software architecture practices, software economics, agile development, and managing technical debt in complex, large-scale software-intensive systems. In addition, as part of her responsibilities, she works with government and industry organizations to improve their software architecture practices. She received a PhD in Computational Design from Carnegie Mellon University. Ozkaya is a senior member of IEEE and the 2019—2021 editor-in-chief of IEEE Software magazine.
Table of Contents
Part I: Becoming Aware of the Landscape
1. Friction in Software Development
2. What is Technical Debt?
3. Moons of Saturn: The Crucial Role of Context
Part II. Analyzing the Technical Debt Item
4. Recognizing Your Technical Debt
5. What Causes Technical Debt?
6. Technical Debt and the Source Code
7. Technical Debt and Architecture
8. Technical Debt in Production
Part III. Managing Technical Debt Tactically and Strategically
9. Quantifying the Debt
10. Servicing the Debt
11. Supporting Practices
12. Living with Your Debt
Appendices
Glossary
References
Bibliography
Other versions by this Author
