4 min lecture • Guide 540 of 877
How to Manage Technical Debt in Development Projects?
How to manage technical debt in development projects?
Manage technical debt by tracking it visibly in GitScrum with dedicated labels, allocating consistent capacity (10-20%), and prioritizing by impact. Create tasks for each debt item, use "tech-debt" labels for filtering, document context in NoteVault, and review in retrospectives. Teams actively managing debt maintain 40% faster velocity [Source: Code Quality Research 2024].
Technical debt management:
- Identify - Capture debt as tasks
- Categorize - Label by type
- Document - Context in description
- Prioritize - By impact
- Allocate - Capacity per sprint
- Track - Progress over time
- Review - In retrospectives
Debt tracking labels
| Label | Type |
|---|---|
| tech-debt | All debt items |
| debt-code | Code quality |
| debt-architecture | Architecture issues |
| debt-testing | Testing gaps |
| debt-docs | Documentation |
| debt-dependency | Outdated dependencies |
| debt-security | Security issues |
Debt priority levels
| Priority | Criteria |
|---|---|
| P1 Critical | Blocks features, security risk |
| P2 High | Significant friction, reliability |
| P3 Medium | Developer productivity |
| P4 Low | Nice to fix eventually |
Capacity allocation strategies
| Strategy | Allocation |
|---|---|
| Consistent % | 10-20% every sprint |
| Debt sprints | Full sprint quarterly |
| Feature tax | % per feature |
| Boy scout | Small fixes with features |
| Debt weeks | Dedicated focus periods |
Documenting debt context
| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| Title | Clear debt description |
| Impact | What it affects |
| Root cause | Why it exists |
| Fix approach | How to address |
| Effort | Estimated time |
| Risk if unfixed | Consequences |
NoteVault debt documentation
| Document | Content |
|---|---|
| Debt inventory | All known debt |
| Architecture debt | System-level issues |
| Debt history | What we've fixed |
| Decisions | Why we deferred |
Board setup for debt
| Option | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Separate column | Debt Backlog |
| Label filtering | tech-debt view |
| Mixed backlog | Prioritized together |
| Debt swimlane | Visual separation |
Measuring debt reduction
| Metric | Track |
|---|---|
| Debt items | Total count |
| Debt by type | Category breakdown |
| Resolution rate | Items fixed/month |
| New debt added | Intake rate |
| Net debt | Added - Fixed |
Debt retrospective questions
| Question | Purpose |
|---|---|
| What debt slowed us? | Identify friction |
| What new debt did we create? | Awareness |
| What debt should we prioritize? | Next actions |
| Are we trending better? | Long-term view |
Preventing new debt
| Practice | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Definition of Done | Quality standards |
| Code review | Catch issues early |
| Refactoring time | Built into estimates |
| Architecture review | Big changes reviewed |
| Debt visibility | No hiding |
Debt payoff strategies
| Strategy | When to Use |
|---|---|
| Strangler pattern | Gradual replacement |
| Refactor in place | Small improvements |
| Rewrite | Fundamentally broken |
| Delete | Unused code |
| Document | Can't fix now |
Common debt mistakes
| Mistake | Better Approach |
|---|---|
| Hidden debt | Make visible |
| No allocation | Consistent capacity |
| Big bang fixes | Incremental |
| No tracking | Label and monitor |
| Blame | Focus on system |