During the course of a workday, software development teams make dozens of decisions, involving complex trade-offs. For every programming language you choose, integration code you write, or automation tool you onboard, you will have consequences in the future.
These consequences are known as technical debt. In the traditional waterfall model of software development, technical debt was extremely common. Agile Scrum methodologies have devised processes to minimize them.
In this blog post, we get into the details of why tech debt occurs and how you can avoid it in your projects.
 How to Manage & Avoid Technical Debt in Scrum?
Summarize this article for me pleaseUnderstanding Technical Debt in Scrum
Traditional software development processes relied on very long-term projects, taking years to implement. By the time the project was completed, the market changed, customer demands evolved, and the tech itself became outdated, creating technical debt.
What is technical debt?
Technical debt refers to the cost of additional rework caused by choosing a reasonable, short-term solution instead of a better approach that would take longer.
Essentially, it’s like taking a shortcut now, which can speed up development in the short term but often leads to increased costs later as the debt needs to be ‘paid off’ by fixing issues that arise from the initial compromise.
What is an example of technical debt?
The simplest example of an existing technical debt is when developers with tight deadlines push code to production without going through thorough code reviews and tests. While the feature is launched, it will be buggy, unusable, or in worst-case scenarios, a cybersecurity burden.
How does Scrum help with technical debt?
In response to the inefficiencies of the waterfall method, the agile Scrum model of software development emerged.
Scrum project management processes are designed to manage technical debt.
- Product backlog is focused on delivering clarity of requirements
- User story definitions necessitate completeness of acceptance criteria
- Scrum masters and product owners dedicate time in each sprint to pay off tech debt
- Code review processes are designed with paying off technical debt in mind
Despite best efforts, technical debt is unavoidable. Let’s see why.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Causes Technical Debt in Scrum?
There are a number of internal and external factors that cause technical debt in Scrum software development projects. Some of the most common causes are:
Market/tech evolution
As time goes by, technology can become outdated and market needs can evolve. This means that the choices you made earlier might need rework. This is natural and Scrum teams expect this as part of their agile software development journey.
Not all causes are natural, though.
Rushing to meet deadlines
Scrum teams work in fixed-length sprints, usually lasting 1-2 weeks. The pressure to complete assigned tasks within these tight deadlines can introduce technical debt by pushing team members to opt for quicker, less optimal solutions.
Inadequate definition of done
The definition of done (DoD) is a crucial artifact in Scrum. It outlines the acceptance criteria for any task to be considered complete. Scrum teams define this clearly even before adding a task to the sprint.
However, inadequate definitions often cause code debt. For instance, if the DoD doesn’t require performance testing, the team might ignore performance issues that require significant effort to fix later.
Incremental changes without holistic planning
While incremental updates allow for rapid delivery of new features, they can sometimes lead to a lack of comprehensive design or planning. In the interest of speed, teams might use software development templates that don’t capture the big picture.
So, each piece of the software is developed and added in increments, which might not always consider the entire system’s architecture. Over time, this can result in a piecemeal architecture that is inefficient, hard to maintain, and fraught with compatibility issues.
Deferred refactoring
In the iterative approach, there’s always a next iteration to fix or improve the existing implementation. This mindset can lead to postponing necessary refactoring with the misguided hope that you can handle it later.
As you build more features on top of inadequately refactored code, the complexity and cost of making changes increases, thus adding to the technical debt.
Even in Scrum projects, various forms of technical debt can arise based on the collaboration between business, engineering, and customer relationship teams. This technical debt can have significant consequences.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat are the Effects of Technical Debt in Scrum?
The direct consequence of technical debt is that it creates a corresponding financial debt in the form of rework, time, and skilled resources. However, the indirect effects of tech debt are plenty and far more damning.
Diminished development velocity: Agile teams riddled by tech debt spend more time fixing bugs and addressing issues from previous sprints rather than working on new features. This means fewer hours to build new features and slower delivery times overall.
Increased complexity: As technical debt accumulates, the codebase becomes more complex and challenging to manage. Each time something needs to be changed, the developer will spend time unraveling the complexity before making any fixes.
Educational overhead: A complex code base increases the cognitive load on existing team members, making it difficult to make quick and effective changes. Moreover, it requires Scrum teams to spend more time onboarding new team members.
Poor software quality: Technical debt significantly impacts software quality by reducing maintainability, increasing the likelihood of bugs, and degrading overall performance.
Engineering reputation: As a product team, if your code needs constant rework to pay off tech debt, your reputation as an engineering organization can suffer tremendously. This would also impact your ability to attract new talent.
To avoid these challenges and simply build better software for the world, you need to minimize—if not entirely eliminate—technical debt. Here’s how.
Summarize this article for me pleaseStrategies to Minimize and Handle Technical Debt
Some of the simplest and most effective ways to minimize technical debt involve building consistent processes. A free project management software can be of immense value here. Here’s how.
1. Conduct thorough code reviews
Code review is the process of a peer examining the code written by their team member for quality assurance standards. Typically, a senior colleague or a technical manager would perform code reviews.
Code coverage and review processes reduce technical debt by ensuring adherence to coding standards and identifying issues early before merging them into the main codebase.
A project management tool like ClickUp can help operationalize this effortlessly. ClickUp’s custom statuses enable you to add ‘code review’ to the workflow.
ClickUp Automations allows you to automatically assign tasks to code review when coding is complete. You can also use ClickUp Checklists to ensure all the acceptance criteria are covered.
If you’re unsure where to start, here is ClickUp’s agile Scrum management template, a fully customizable framework to deliver projects with fewer errors and nip technical debt in the bud.
2. Automate code quality checks
The advent of AI, along with mature test automation practices, has great potential to eliminate tech debt. For instance, using no-code apps helps reduce manual coding, thus decreasing the possibility of bugs.
You can also use AI code tools and code editors to:
- Identify code errors
- See recommended alternatives for the errors
- Check adherence to best practices
- Include comments and share knowledge among team members
Code reviews and automation play a critical role in the shift left of quality processes. For example, if a developer identifies a potential security flaw in a new authentication feature, they can address the flaw before it becomes part of the software, preventing costly future fixes and security risks.
ClickUp Brain can further improve your efficiencies by accelerating your Scrum project management tasks. ClickUp’s AI Knowledge Manager and AI Project Manager allow you to ask questions, get answers, and automate tasks in a jiffy.
3. Make technical debt transparent
Call a spade a spade. In your project management system, clearly mark technical debt items as such to ensure these issues receive the necessary attention and resources during sprint planning.
ClickUp’s flexible task management software allows you to mark a task as a feature, defect, milestone, or feedback. By categorizing your work appropriately, you can make better prioritization decisions.
4. Build visibility into tech debt
At any given time, the product owner should be able to answer the question: So, what is our tech debt?
To do that, you need to have clear, granular visibility into your tasks. ClickUp’s project management software is designed to give you that freedom. With 35+ ClickApps and 15+ views, you can tailor task management, bug tracking, and workflow visualization in the way that works best for you.
You can also create a custom view for tech debt tasks, complete with its own Dashboard to monitor progress.
5. Include the product owner
The role of a product owner is fundamental in bridging the gap between business requirements and technical execution. They have the most say in decisions about when and how much technical debt to address in each sprint.
As the software development team, collaborate with the product owner closely. Enable them to:
- Understand the scope and implications of technical debt
- Communicate with business stakeholders
- Secure necessary buy-ins and budgets
- Build systems to eliminate future tech debt
ClickUp’s technical debt register template is a powerful resource to manage end-to-end operations. This fully customizable template acts as a ledger to document, manage, measure, and provide remedies to all tech debts.
6. Set processes to pay off tech debt
Data capture: Within each task, capture detailed descriptions of technical debt, including its origin, impact, and potential solutions, facilitating a systematic approach to addressing these issues.
Planning: During sprint meetings, plan for treating and resolving technical debt with the same rigor as new features or bug fixes.
Regularly refactor code: Schedule regular refactoring to consolidate and streamline the code base.
For instance, let’s say, a development team notices that several functions in their application use similar code to retrieve user data from the database. They will refactor these functions by creating a single utility function that handles database calls, which all other functions can use. This simplifies the codebase and makes it easier to maintain and less error-prone.
Summarize this article for me pleaseFree Yourself from Technical Debt With ClickUp
Every project-related decision has its pros and cons. Optimizing for short-term pros will create long-term technical debt. Even teams that know this very well are sometimes pushed to make suboptimal decisions.
Therefore, handling technical debt in Scrum projects is an ongoing and iterative process. It is integral to every sprint planning process. ClickUp’s project management software understands this. It is filled with flexible and customizable features and AI tools every Scrum team needs.
Summarize this article for me pleaseFAQs About Technical Debt
1. What causes technical debt in Scrum?
Technical debt in Scrum can arise from evolving markets, rushing to meet sprint deadlines, leading to quick fixes instead of sustainable solutions. Inadequate definitions of done that do not include stringent quality checks can also contribute to accumulating debt.
From the client’s side, frequent changes in requirements and priorities can lead to rework and inconsistencies in the codebase.
2. What happens when technical debt increases in Scrum?
When technical debt increases in Scrum, development velocity decreases as you spend more time fixing bugs and addressing legacy issues than on new features.
This often results in lower product quality, risk of project failure, and strain on team morale as members may feel overwhelmed by the growing backlog of maintenance tasks.
3. How to avoid technical debt in agile?
To avoid technical debt in agile, ensure rigorous adherence to a comprehensive definition of done that includes quality standards like code reviews and testing.
Prioritize regular refactoring and allocate time to address technical debt in sprint planning. Additionally, maintain clear and continuous communication within the team and with stakeholders to manage expectations and priorities effectively.
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