You need to understand that what a legacy system does for the company right now is all that it will ever do. A legacy system is an outdated computing software or hardware used to date. It can easily meet the requirements it was initially designed for. However, it doesn’t allow it to grow any further. It is because the system still has what it takes to meet the needs of today.
Like in finance, you wish to prevent financial debt, but IT teams do not want to encounter technical debt. Nevertheless, what does that state? Technical debt is also referred to as code debt. It is the labor cost linked with reworking a code or application that was at fault previously. It often happens and is no less than a nightmare for developers.
Let’s get into why legacy systems collect technical debt.
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What Causes Technical Debt?
For example, a company is about to launch an application. The development team is under a lot of pressure, and on top of that, they encounter a complex problem, and they adopt the easy and quick method of fixing the problem so that the app can be completed in time. That doesn’t seem like much trouble, right? Revisiting it later and seeing if it works fine won’t cause any issues. And that is precisely how technical debt is built.
Regardless of the root cause of the technical debt, its impact is incredible on the team and affects the overall productivity of the software. It can be triggered by additional things other than just careless developers or imperfect code. Occasionally, you can fix it with alternate measures, but sometimes, these can become unavoidable. These situations mainly occur when there are software updates, budget limitations, new releases of software design languages, out-of-date legacy systems or company expansions, etc.
The technical debt downward spiral is described as:
- Pressure to increase productivity leads to lower productivity which further leads to low code quality, which then refers to high technical debt leads to pressure to increase productivity. High technical debt leads to low morale and motivation.
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Technical debt is distributed into three types:
- Intentional tech debt
It results from knowing that you are doing something of purpose, for example, reducing the code quality to make the app available on time in the market. It can branch from organization choices, IT departments, and even the selection of a coding program. - Unintentional tech debt
This is when your application or code needs to be updated and improved after it has become outdated, such as new features and advancements. It is difficult to prevent it as you need to adopt the latest technologies with time, but this is the easiest tech debt to resolve. - Software entropy technical debt
This is when the software – the legacy system goes through a decline of functioning in the future that impacts your product.
Now, you must wonder, if software’s are easy to alter, then why do organizations let these turn into massive legacy systems that later pile up as technical debt?
- Legacy systems get larger and full with time
- A legacy system demands growth in IT staff to keep it active and to run
- The legacy system gets more multifaceted and tough to comprehend
- The technology behind these legacy systems gets outdated and young developers and programmers don’t wish to study it
How To Avoid Technical Debt?
Now that you know what causes technical debt and why legacy systems collect technical debt over time, the great news is that it can be stopped. When your technical team collaborates with the management, steps can be taken to ensure there is no technical debt.
Here are a few steps that you can follow to prevent technical debt:
Premium code quality: this is crucial. You must follow this under all circumstances as it will come back to you. A bad code is the first step toward a technical debt. You must ensure that your team is skilled enough to produce regulations that will drive clear of any debt in the future. Technical debt is usual in businesses that don’t have a proficient technical team.
Strong architecture is equally important as it lets you start with an inconsequential design and then build over time. It is essential to see the optimal coding platform and think about how the legacy stems will be included. You can work on this step-by-step and then track and direct how much technical debt you have.
Quality assurance: there is no doubt that this is one of the most important steps in the app development process. You must ensure that the application is defect-free and test it against every activity.
Refactoring: once you start refactoring the code, they will act as a safeguard and will assist in boosting endurance in the future. It will help avoid technical debt and now let things fall apart. Efficient teams find instant solutions to combat technical debt, and so should yours.
Careful development approach: a quicker pace does not necessarily mean the work is done carelessly. The job should be done with consistent iterations, and by perfecting small portions of the task and testing automation and architecture, you can avoid technical debt.
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What’s The Verdict?
Technical debt cannot be avoided unless you and your team are constantly on the run to improve, develop, grow and innovate your products. However, you can take the measures mentioned above to prevent this debt from piling up. That will help you avoid a huge chunk of technical debt.
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