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Buried in Technical Debt?

Buried in Technical Debt? was my first talk I started giving at technical events. Constantly being slightly updated to reflect my improving understanding of the concept and how to apply it (which is ironic, given that sounds like the definition of technical debt), this talk is now available in both a full hour-long format and a condensed 5-minute lightning talk version. Both versions also cover related subjects such as the Urgent-Important matrix.

Full talk

The full hour-long talk has been presented at the following events:

Chris Stone giving Buried in Technical Debt talk at Atlanta Code Camp 2021

Abstract

Have you ever taken a shortcut to complete a task, assuring yourself that you would go back and clean it up and do it the right way later when you had the time? In software, this is called “technical debt,” and when it piles up, it can make code hard to read and maintain. Soon enough, the cost to fix these problems can become too high, and convincing your team to take action becomes increasingly difficult. In this talk, we will discuss the different types of technical debt, how to convince other people in the organization of the importance of making regular “minimum payments,” and some creative strategies to keep in mind for software projects with excessive “accrued interest.”

Slides

The slides for the most recent revision of the full presentation are hosted on Google Slides.

Recordings

This presentation was recorded twice, at Festive Tech Calendar 2021 and St. Louis Java User’s Group. See both in the playlist below:

Lightning talk version

The lightning talk version of “Buried on Technical Debt?” has been presented at the following events:

Chris Stone giving Buried in Technical Debt talk at Modern Web ATL

Abstract

When software teams take shortcuts to complete tasks, assuring themselves that they will go back and improve things later when they have more time, they call this “technical debt,” and many teams believe they have accrued too much. Learn about some of the ways this can happen and how teams can take action to start paying down that debt and get control of their projects.

Slides

The slides for the most recent revision of the lightning presentation are hosted on Google Slides.

Backlinks