What is Technical Debt? (as a software developer)

[@justinoneill2837]

_"Whenever you do something in a sub-optimal way that produces artifacts that you need to address later"_ I was looking for a short n sweet definition of this and you nailed it with this 1-liner.

[@BeABetterDev]

I'm glad that resonated with you Justin!

[@sjkdec18]

how about "when 'good enough' comes back to bite you in the ass"?

[@nelmatrix3942]

Let me refine that definition for you: "Technical depth is what you get whenever you do something in a sub-optimal way that produces artifact that you need to address later."

[@milanp7]

I have worked in 3 companies in the span of 6 years, every where I go i face this problem. I have to rebuild many features from scratch and deal with it. Thanks for the knowledge bro.

[@BeABetterDev]

You're very welcome!

[@TzechiuLei]

@@BeABetterDev @josephhernandez8086, have you seen any success getting something done process-wise about tech debt, proposing solutions "bottom-up" from our developer level?

[@BroadwayRonMexico]

My go-to example to define technical debt is Bethesda's engine over the years. It's been iterated upon a lot and even been renamed twice, but at its core, the Creation Engine they use now is still built on code used in Morrowind back in 2002 (a game which had a lot of shortcuts taken and was rushed to meet budget and schedule constraints), and everything they add to and change with the engine just breaks more stuff. A lot of Fallout 76's legendary buggyness is the result of Morrowind spaghetti code that had a ton of corners cut in the first place, and too much has been built on

[@BeABetterDev]

I love this as an example :D

[@bikrambora]

You've been doing some really amazing content! I've been following the live demos/coding playlist, it's brilliant!

[@BeABetterDev]

Thank you so much Bikram! Glad you are enjoying the videos :)

[@ApplicableProgramming]

Agree, especially with the point of cleaning the code. A LOT of companies, managers but also programmers ignore this part. The moment they see the feature they consider it done and move to the next one, however a cleanup is also part of making some feature. I also believe that this has to do with self-respect to a certain level, you have to stand with your chests straight. So if you stand by and defend the quality of your code, respect your work, then the others will respect your work, and you will make a better code, and a better code means less debth. Of course with a reason as you mentioned, sometimes you do what you have to do, but do come back to it, and educate people around you why it is important (usually it is not difficult to show some examples of how it bites back long term)

[@ambigus7]

Absolutly Agree! It is really hard! To educate people to understand all this Key Points on Development Universe!

[@justinoneill2837]

@@ambigus7 yep! and most of the time they don't even want to listen to you

[@rohitupadhyay4665]

Would like to see a day in your life video, talking about how do you plan your day and future work pipeline, side projects, work life balance etc.

[@BeABetterDev]

Thanks for the idea!

[@ambigus7]

@@BeABetterDev +1 Will be great!

[@octobotdev]

Loved the definitions, very clear!

[@IgnoreMyChan]

Also known as "The Future-Me Problem".

[@BeABetterDev]

100% agree with you. I love this quote lol

[@ambigus7]

Excellent work! I just need this video to understand a lot of things! Thanks You are a really great Dev!

[@BeABetterDev]

Thanks Miguel! Glad you enjoyed :)

[@canyousayadaora8287]

Awesome context!. thank you for a clear definition

[@arunsoundar]

Few other common examples 1. Managing NFR's (Security, Performance, Browser Compatibility) etc 2. Upgrading Tech stack because of lack of support from Legacy/ Deprecrated methods 3. Addressing Customer issues where there is a challenge everytime in a specific piece of code that needs introspection , which may/may not lead to Tech debt 4. Keeping pace with current industry - make face changes to specific softwares if needs to be rebuilt 5. Always keep your Architectural, Plaform components inline with latest versions of software (OWASP A06-2023) 6. Keep an eye on Upgradation to infra very frequently and look for bottlenecks / improvements

[@FeverDev64]

Technical Debt Victim here. As a game developer, I made all the 20 levels of a game in a SINGLE level which resulted in huge loading times and unusable expereience. To solve this I tried to optimize everything but at the end , I just had to go back to the roots. Load a SINGLE level instead.

[@mbehboodian]

Good content, thanks! also you fingers are signs of being a experienced programmer :)

[@BeABetterDev]

Lol! I've been told they are piano fingers but I suppose there is not much difference between overuse of keyboard or piano ;)

[@venktesh6600]

I don't think evolution takes that fast..!! Its from the gene codes not computer codes I guess..

[@ambigus7]

Sonarqube returns me 32d (32 days) of Technical Debt of my code. Which is a good number of days to this metric?

[@gregf9160]

All excellent points. I've been fighting against this all my pro life.

[@BeABetterDev]

Never stop, Greg! :)

[@danielwaiguru4359]

Make a feature work, then refactor, best approach when you have tight deadlines

[@MargaTravino]

very good explanation, thank you so much!

[@BeABetterDev]

Hi Marga, you're very welcome!

[@nandibhebhe859]

Hello, do you work on updating resume to a SM position?

[@devonlamond]

Life lesson, really, tied into development!

[@jacquied2013]

Great explanation! Thanks

[@mohmedishak8853]

This is so informative 😭

[@DevsLikeUs]

Great explanation.

[@BeABetterDev]

Glad it was helpful!

[@aminos-nour]

thank u bro well explained 👍👍👍👍

[@ayomikunsamuel7743]

Can technical debt actually be elimited, or best is to minimize it as best as possible?

[@ItsMeMarieClaire]

4:15 🔥🔥🔥

[@andriys5772]

Thank you

[@BeABetterDev]

You're very welcome!

[@ramseyabsessien8990]

Imagine a nurse practitioner trying to switch career to a scrum master and have to understand this!

[@venktesh6600]

Its nothing but a Economical Debt, its the same human behaviour thats causing technical debt. therefore, its better to call it a "Technical Corruption" OR "Technical Dishonesty" OR "Technical Hypocrisy" to give the correct picture to your audience and IT beginners. isn't it?

[@sleepnabox]

Im in "rebuild the system" mode lol. It's terrible.

[@BeABetterDev]

Keep your head up, you'll get there eventually :)

[@peterpodgorski]

This is not what technical debt is. Sorry, but this is just wrong. Technical debt is a practice of deliberately releasing an incomplete understanding of the domain in order to identify its shortcomings. It has noting to do with "delivering things on time" or taking shortcuts. In fact, Ward Cunningham specifically emphasised that code written as technical debt must be written perfectly.

[@camgere]

Pay me now or pay me later. It's later.