[HN Gopher] The Annual Cost of Technical Debt: $1.52T
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       The Annual Cost of Technical Debt: $1.52T
        
       Author : d_tr
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2024-01-25 22:15 UTC (45 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (itzareyesmx.medium.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (itzareyesmx.medium.com)
        
       | kazinator wrote:
       | [delayed]
        
       | grohan wrote:
       | Impressive numbers. Does anyone have any read or anecdotes on how
       | much a small/mid/large company loses from low quality of
       | software/bad practices (or conversely profits from the opposite)?
       | 
       | Seems like a challenging metric to measure, but always been
       | curious on what the numbers look like.
        
       | rgmerk wrote:
       | These numbers smell like there's at least one faulty assumption
       | in there.
       | 
       | A) How much of this debt could have been avoided with industry
       | best practice as now understood?
       | 
       | B) how much of this debt could have been avoided with industry
       | best practice as understood when the software was written?
        
       | 1594932281 wrote:
       | From the quote in the article about paying back technical debt:
       | "Technical debt accumulates when decision-makers opt for a short-
       | term solution to a software development problem rather than a
       | more comprehensive long-term solution. This initially hides
       | substantial costs that organizations must later pay."
       | 
       | One thing to keep in mind is you don't always need to pay this
       | debt back. For instance - what if you want to try a quick
       | prototype of something (which may later be discarded if it
       | doesn't pan out), or just need a temporary stopgap solution?
        
         | willsmith72 wrote:
         | and it's not just that
         | 
         | to the bankrupt startup, the difference between $5m of tech
         | debt and a perfect codebase/architecture is precisely 0.
         | they're bankrupt either way
         | 
         | racking up tech debt is a necessary strategy at certain points
         | in most companies' lives
        
       | joevandyk wrote:
       | How many trillions of value was created by taking on 1.52T in
       | technical debt?
        
       | isityouyesitsme wrote:
       | Cool. What's the opportunity cost to fix it?
        
       | adhesive_wombat wrote:
       | Honestly, sounds low. Technical debt is just like real debt: a
       | useful tool to allow you to borrow against the future to get
       | things done today, and an existential threat if not serviced
       | before it gets out of hand. A tool the everyone else is using to
       | the hilt and if you don't you'll be at a severe disadvantage. If
       | it accumulates, it can sometimes be cleared through a painful
       | multi-year process where no-one is having fun and you don't get
       | to do many nice things you thing you should be able to.
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-25 23:00 UTC)