Technical debt: why it’s important to manage it

When developing an application, accumulating technical debt is inevitable, and it directly impacts teams. In addition to weakening productivity and adding maintenance overhead, the buildup of this technical debt can lead to security or legal problems. Today, solutions exist to measure and eliminate these technical flaws so that teams can remain calm and focused on future projects. Here’s our guide to understanding technical debt and paying it off.

What is technical debt?

Much like in finance, technical debt refers to a delay that an application or software accumulates, endangering its functionality. The term is straightforward, but its definition is complex. There are two main categories of technical debt: tactical and endemic.

Tactical technical debt

This type of debt involves those intentionally created by developers. It often arises from compromises made to speed up the launch of a feature to meet deadlines. These decisions are tracked, and once the objective is achieved, one can consider what debt needs to be cleared to keep the application flexible.

Endemic technical debt

Here, it’s the opposite. Endemic technical debt is unintentional; it appears where it’s least expected. It depends on the architecture (complexity, poor pattern choices), the code (poor quality, lack of tests), but also on external factors like dependencies. Therefore, it is crucial to become aware of it as soon as possible to be able to repay and manage it in the future.

Technical debt related to technological dependencies

Technical debt related to dependencies is endemic because it is generated by libraries or APIs used in projects. The lifecycle of these dependencies is beyond control, and tracking changes can be challenging. It is this lack of awareness about updates that creates technical debt.

For example, an application relying on a dependency that no longer meets standards or is no longer supported risks causing technical issues. Or, the obsolescence of the dependency can render the application non-compliant and therefore vulnerable to security flaws.

As a result, due to this technical debt, the deployment, legality, or proper functioning of the application’s code will be compromised.

Why is it important to manage technical debt related to dependencies?

As you can see, ignoring technical debt, whatever its nature, is a perfect way to endanger projects as well as development teams. Without action, it will accumulate and require more resources and time to resolve, while decreasing velocity. It’s like interest in the world of finance.

On the other hand, managing the technical debt in your code offers considerable benefits:

• Simplified Management and Maintenance: By identifying risks related to open-source components in your code, your decision-makers and managers will be better equipped to anticipate costs and plan maintenance more proactively and effectively.
• Increased Productivity: With clear information, your teams will have the necessary tools to improve their operational, economic, and organizational efficiency, while boosting productivity.
• Enhanced Security: By reducing technical debt, you minimize vulnerabilities linked to outdated dependencies and components, strengthening the security of your applications and reducing the risk of flaws.

The goal is to have a solid and technically stable application with minimal dedicated technical support.

Our solution

Technical debt is not a topic to take lightly. It impacts companies and their clients if it remains misunderstood and unmanageable. To address this issue, we developed Koddian, a comprehensive Software Composition Analysis (SCA) solution to detect vulnerabilities in your code’s dependencies and ensure the security and maintainability of your applications over time. Our goal is to provide an overview of the health status of projects developed by the company. We have implemented a scoring system targeting obsolescence, security, and licenses, which we then merge into a global score. This way, you have control over the specific issues of your applications and can act to mitigate the dangers associated with technical debt.

Learn more by visiting the Koddian website or scheduling a demo with our team!