Just like financial debt, technical debt can cripple your ability to develop and deliver high-quality products.
At Wishtree Technologies, we understand the critical role clear, well-maintained code plays in propelling your digital product success.
How Unattended technical debt silently erodes your edge
- Disruptions and Downtime: Outdated or poorly written code is prone to failures. Also, this halts production lines and causes costly delays.
- Inefficiency and Errors: Complex, convoluted codebases slow down development and increase the risk of errors that can compromise product quality.
- Security Vulnerabilities: Unpatched systems with technical debt expose manufacturers to cyberattacks and data breaches. Meanwhile, for a deeper dive into Enterprise Cloud Security best practices in 2024, check out our blog on Enhancing Enterprise Cloud Security Every Step of the Way.
- Lowered Morale: Developers bogged down by technical debt become disengaged and less productive.
- Increased Cost to Repair: Shortcuts to meet deadlines create a mess later, requiring more time and resources to fix compared to clean code from the start.
- Poor Customer Satisfaction: Disruptions and errors hurt customer experience. Additionally, this leads to churn and lost revenue. Retention is cheaper than acquisition.
- Decreased Revenue: Slow, expensive feature development hinders your revenue. Therefore, competitors win in the marketplace easily.
- Hindered Business Agility and Efficiency: Slowed development hinders the ability to adapt and seize market opportunities.
The Four Horsemen of Technical Debt and How to Slay Them
Obviously, technical debt arises from prioritizing short-term expediency over long-term code maintainability. Here’s how it accumulates and how Wishtree Technologies can help you conquer each type:
- Deliberate and Reckless Debt:
This occurs when teams prioritize rapid delivery over code quality, leading to a fragile codebase. Wishtree implements rigorous coding standards that encompass architectural principles, security protocols, and performance benchmarks. We automate code reviews and monitor code quality, ensuring every line adheres to your standards. Additionally, we utilize advanced methodologies like Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Domain-Driven Design (DDD). This is done to catch issues early and ensure code aligns with business objectives. And, this focus on quality from the start helps prevent the need for extensive fixing of technical debt later.
- Deliberate and Prudent Debt:
This debt is incurred strategically to expedite delivery or adapt to changing requirements. Wishtree integrates automated testing (unit, integration, performance, and security testing) and Continuous Integration (CI) into your development lifecycle. CI platforms like Jenkins or CircleCI automatically build, test, and analyze your code with each change, allowing you to identify and address problems early. Also, we implement comprehensive monitoring with tools like Prometheus and Grafana.
- Inadvertent and Reckless Debt:
This stems from a lack of knowledge or oversight in the development process. Wishtree provides a technically-rich onboarding program for new team members. Additionally, this includes codebase walkthroughs, best practices training, and hands-on pairing with senior developers. Also, we champion effective code review practices, including automated code analysis, pair programming, and mob programming.
- Inadvertent and Prudent Debt:
This arises when a team fails to update the codebase with new technologies or requirements. Wishtree focuses on regular code quality assessments and auditing. Moreover, we track code quality metrics like cyclomatic complexity, technical debt ratio, code churn, and duplication percentage to identify areas needing attention. Our comprehensive code audits cover all aspects of the codebase. Additionally, it provides actionable results for refactoring, updating dependencies, or improving documentation.
Invest in Quality, Reap the Rewards
Partnering with Wishtree Technologies means you have a team of experts dedicated to transforming code quality. We help you systematically fix technical debt and guide you from a concept to a tangible asset. Also, we assist in developing robust, scalable, and secure digital products that empower your long-term business goals.
Wishtree, a product engineering services company with an unmatched reputation, provides solutions to an array of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, Thoma Bravo, Vista Equity Partners, UN Agencies (WHO, UNDP, World Bank), Nonprofits, and Startups.
Hence, for a comprehensive guide on building world-class digital products, check out our blog on How To Build World Class Products? The Digital Product Engineering Blueprint.
Contact us today for a free 2-week trial.