Quality Debt: Is Your Project Going Bankrupt?

BT7 Session 6/6/2013 2:15 PM

"Quality Debt: Is Your Project Going Bankrupt?"

Presented by:

Jordan Setters PlanIT Software Testing LTD, New Zealand

Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073 888‐268‐8770 ∙ 904‐278‐0524 ∙ [email protected] ∙ www.sqe.com

Jordan Setters Planit Software Testing, Ltd.

A test consultant for Planit Software Testing, Ltd. in New Zealand, Jordan Setters has been in software testing for twelve years in both the public and commercial sectors. Jordan has worked with companies as diverse as Telecom NZ, testing their capacity to lawfully intercept communications for law enforcement agencies; Transpower NZ, helping implement a new electricity market system to manage New Zealand’s national power grid; and the Ministry of Social Development. Jordan is proud of his hands on approach to testing. A proponent of pragmatic testing approaches, Jordan is passionate about achieving the best possible system for the users, using whatever means and methods necessary.

Quality DebtIs your project going bankrupt?Is your project going bankrupt?

Presented by:

Jordan [email protected]

So . . . What is “Quality Debt”

A Brief on “Technical Debt”

Shipping first time code is like going into debt A little debt speedsinto debt. A little debt speeds

development so long as it is paid back promptly with a rewrite. . . . The

danger occurs when the debt is not repaid. Every minute spent on not-

quite-right code counts as interest on that debt. Entire engineering

Ward Cunningham: inventor of Wiki, and all around brainy guy

organisation can be brought to a stand-still under the debt load of an

unconsolidated implementation, object-oriented or otherwise.

-Ward Cunningham, 1992-


Debt can be simply broken into two parts:PrincipalPrincipal:The direct cost of fixing those structural flaws in the production system – at a minimum is a cost calculated by: • number of hours to fix x x • fully burdened hourly cost of those

involved – design, developing, testing


Interest:Contin ing costs The amo nt of time Continuing costs: The amount of time (therefore money) developers spend in working around known design flaws, limitations, and bugs while coding new features – i.e. inefficiency

See also: Business Risk, Liability, Risk, & Opportunity Cost

© Planit Test Management Solutions Pty Ltd 2008

A “Quality Debt” Concept

“Technical Debt” often doesn’t present itself into defects during the testing or itself into defects during the testing or use of the system - It is a debt to the developersWe (testers) deal with decisions that affect the quality of the system to the user This is debt to the user / user - This is debt to the user / business . . . ”Quality Debt”

A “Quality Debt” Concept

The first time code is released to production is like going into debt. A little debt speeds the project along, so long as it is paid back promptly with a rewrite. . . . The danger occurs when the debt is not

repaid. Every minute the users spend on not-quite-right functionality counts as

interest on that debt. Entire developmentprojects can be brought to a stand still

Jordan Setters:Stylish Bass god, and the best tester in the world (according to him anyway)

projects can be brought to a stand-still under the debt load of bad functionality,

defects or otherwise.-Jordan Setters, 2012: shamelessly paraphrasing Ward

Cunningham -

What it looks like when we get it wrong


Types of Quality Debt

Unintentional: Th t t t i b t lt f These are not strategic, but are a result of people doing a bad job and is often occurred unknowingly:• Bad Coding* • A poor design approach• Incomplete requirements*Incomplete requirements

Types of Quality Debt

Intentional: Project makes a conscious decision to Project makes a conscious decision to optimise for the present at the expense of the future. Characterised by decisions that include statements like:• “If we don’t get this release done on time, there

won’t be a next one”won t be a next one• “We don’t have the time to . . .”• “We can work around by . . .”• “We’ll clean this up later”• “We’ll do that after go live . . . in another phase”

Be sure you are taking on the right kind of Debt

Some debt is taken on in large chunks:chunks:“We don’t have time to do it right, so we’ll fix it after go-live” – akin to large debt like buying a car, it can be tracked and measured.

Be sure you are taking on the right kind of Debt

Other debt accumulates from taking hundreds of short cuts akin to Credit hundreds of short-cuts – akin to Credit Card debt

• Easy to incur unintentionally• It adds up faster than you think• It’s much harder to manage and track


Debt MUST BE SERVICED

There is a tipping point D th b th d WTF’• Death by a thousand WTF’s• The debt of the hundred little inefficiencies

building up, adding time and frustration to their daily tasks

• This is “Interest” on your debt.Oft t id b th j t b t id b Often not paid by the project, but paid by

the business in lost time and productivity.


When do you know you have Problem• A growing dislike for the system admitted by • A growing dislike for the system admitted by

developers, testers, and users• Small defects never get fixed• A bad user experience or UI is a clue it is

rotten to the core• Growing number of workarounds• Consistently not meeting requirements Consistently not meeting requirements • Lack of knowledge of what the system does

and why• Unused features

When are you in over your head• Deep contempt for the system


• Deep contempt for the system• All knowledgeable developers, testers,

and SME have disavowed the system or left

• Infrequent software releases• Bug fixes take too long• Lots of “Sorry” “OMG” “WTF” and • Lots of Sorry , OMG , WTF , and

“$%#&*!!” comments• Documentation is no longer useful as a

test oracle• Work arounds are now enshrined in

the user experience

GMAS Example


Managing Debt in an Agile World

The way debt can be measured and dealt with in Agile with in Agile Hardening IterationDebt a part of product backlogMore opportunity to payback debt before it becomes an issueMore likelihood of accumulating ‘credit card’ debt


“What he needs is some way to pay back. Not some way to borrow more ”

The “No Defect” Mindset

Not some way to borrow more.- Will Rogers

At any given time, the highest priority is to eliminate bugs before writing any new code.


How Do You Measure Quality Debt

Maintain a “Debt List” with defectsKeep a track of the “Debt Backlog”p g

• when debt is paid off, remove it from the list;

• if a debt starts becoming “old” then increase the priority of that fix

Must have a useful measure to safeguard against the accumulation of “credit card” debt

How Do You Measure Quality Debt

You can calculate a cost for Quality Debt

(((0.1 ∑ LSV) + (0.25 ∑ MSV) + (0.5 ∑ HSV)) x Time(h) x $ /hour)LSV = Low severity defectMSV = Medium severity defectHSV = High severity defect

CAST surveyed 745 applications and the l i l i d i d h resulting analysis determined the

average Technical Debt = $3.61 per line of code.


Communicating Quality Debt

“For every (dollar) of competitive advantage gained by cutting quality it advantage gained by cutting quality, it costs $4 to restore it; and software is an organisational asset and decisions to cut quality must be made by executive management and reflected in the financial statements ”statements.- Ken Schwaber

http://www.infog.com/presentations/agile-quality-canary-coalmine



This is a concept that immediately resonates ywith executives and project management

Presents well to both non-technical and technical stake holders likalike


Should be contextualised• Discuss in terms of money and time rather • Discuss in terms of money and time, rather

than features or functionality• If you can calculate the time of workarounds,

then compare with project business case• Compare “good debt” with “bad debt”



Treat the discussion as an on-going dialogue rather than a single presentation; dialogue rather than a single presentation; it may take several discussions before the nuances of the metaphor fully sink in.


References

Curtis, Bill. Paying Down the Interest on Your Applications: A Guide to Measuring and Managing Technical Debt. New York: CAST, 20122012

McConnel, Steve. Technical Debt. www.ontechnicaldebt.com, 2007

Schwaber, Ken. www.infog.com/presentations/agile-quality-canary-coalmine

Strutz, Nathan. Holistic Program Quality and Technical Debt (presentation). CF. Objective, 2011

Szynkarski, Alexandra. 3 Concepts to Aid Developers in Addressing Techinical Debt. www.ontechnicaldebt.com, 2012

Appendix A: Debt Glossary

Technical Debt: These are the activities that a team or team members take shortcuts on now that will impede future d l t if l t idevelopment if let as isQuality (Testing) Debt: There is a diminishing ability to verify the functional and technical quality of software: the Break/Fix mentalityConfiguration Management Debt: Integration and release management become more risky, complex, and error-proneDesign Debt: The cost of adding features is increasing toward the point where it is more than the cost of writing from scratch the point where it is more than the cost of writing from scratch Platform Experience Debt: The availability and alignment of people to business objectives that involve software changes is becoming more limited or cost-prohibitive Non Debt: Feature backlog, deferred features, cut features, etc. Not all incomplete work is debt


Technology

Quality Debt: Is Your Project Going Bankrupt?