Fixing Your Firm’s Technical Debt Burden: Webinar By OutSystems

Republished By Plato

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Enterprise software development platform OutSystems will be hosting an interactive discussion on “Best Practices for Avoiding and Fixing Technical Debt,” with a panel of accomplished speakers on board.

Technical debt refers to resources and costs that will have to be undertaken for future reworks in software development, due to work done or not done today. This usually happens in cases where the delivery of a feature or project is on priority, as firms aim to achieve speed to market and speed of change.

In such instances, developers may use shortcuts that would need to be reworked or replaced later on. These shortcuts can be resource-intensive, create risk, and impede innovation later in the software life cycle.

According to a McKinsey survey of technical debt among 50 CIOs in 2020, 60% of surveyed CIOs felt that their technical debt had risen over the previous three years.

Further, 20-40% of the value of their technology estate prior to depreciation was reserved for technical debt, amounting to “hundreds of millions of dollars” in unpaid debt for larger organisations.

A 2021 report by OutSystems highlights the factors behind this growing problem, having surveyed 521 IT decision makers across the world. According to the report, a rising number of development languages and frameworks, and high turnover in development teams, were leading reasons behind technical debt.

At the same time, outdated development languages and frameworks also contributed to the problem. Further, surveyed firms noted that known defects were often accepted in order to meet release deadlines.

What you can do about technical debt

Taking place on 28 September, the discussion by OutSystems will focus on measuring and managing technical debt. It will highlight the common causes of technical debt and how to identify them, as well as best practices to monitor, measure and manage technical debt.

Rick Kazman

The discussion will feature Professor Rick Kazman, who co-authored a recent MIT Press publication titled “Technical Debt in Practice: How to Find it and Fix It.” Kazman is a Professor at the University of Hawaii.

Through technical discussions and real-world experiences, the book explores the different types of technical debt, their practical implications over time, and ways to manage it.

As part of the webinar, not only will attendees be able to access a deep dive into three chapters from the book (implementation debt, architecture debt and deployment debt), but will also receive a free copy of the book.

Meanwhile, the virtual discussion will also feature Hans van Grieken, Independent International Technology Researcher at Techinspire, and John Ferguson, Solution Architecture at OutSystems.

Attendees will also have the benefit of attending the webinar at one of three different time zones for their convenience. The webinar will be broadcast at 2:00 PM EDT (New York), 10:00 AM BST (London) and 11:30 AM SGT (Singapore).

Attendees can register for the interactive virtual event here: https://bit.ly/3h4kDJR