Session Abstract

Methodologies

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Evaluating Tech Debt

We've all been there. You've got a feature list a mile long and stakeholders begging for features. But your developers are complaining that the repos are a mess. Libraries are out of date, the platform is creaking, and big portions of the code base are desperately in need of — wait for it — refactoring. How do you make sense of it? How do you separate the critical from the trivial — and how do you prioritize the work that you do want to tackle against your feature list. For this session, I’ll survey high-functioning tech teams from a variety of tech companies to hear what works and what doesn’t when it comes to addressing tech debt. You’ll learn how to engage in conversations with engineers so you can uncover the most pressing needs. You’ll also hear what executives need to hear when asked why their roadmap isn’t progressing as fast you expected. There’s no glamour in chipping away at a mountain of decaying code. But doing it effectively is critical to a sprint team’s productivity.

Jay has been building digital products for more than 20 years, having worked in real-money gaming, journalism, and enterprise SaaS. He's the author of multiple books on programming, database development, and poker. He lives in Boston, MA, and is very much looking to traveling and go to the theater when the world gets back to normal.