What even is technical debt?
Virtual
A meditation on the nature of technical debt, adjacent concepts, and precision of language.
Where did this term come from?
What do we mean when we use this term?
Can we usefully distinguish “technical debt” from other categories of “things we don’t like”?
What can we learn from the “debt” metaphor?
What are the shortcomings of the “debt” metaphor? What other metaphors are available, and what might we learn from them?
What does all this mean? How can I responsibly navigate incurring and paying down technical debt in my IT work at the University? How does this affect the human beings who perform and are touched by this work?
This talk will examine the apparent origins of this concept from Ward Cunningham, trace some of how it has been expanded upon and applied since. We will appreciate the metaphor while also considering its shortcomings. We will examine other available metaphors.
The audience will leave the talk more ready to think critically about “technical debt.”