Technical Debt — The Code Monster in Your Closet

Technical debt is the code monster hiding in everyone’s closet — and if you ignore it, it will terrorize you at night. Every codebase accumulates it, but few teams have a clear strategy for dealing with it.

This talk examines real case studies across multiple languages and organizations, showing how “temporary” solutions compound into serious problems over time. You’ll learn how to recognize the warning signs early and develop systematic strategies for paying down debt without halting feature development.

Key ideas:

• “An elegant codebase is one that was worked on by multiple people, but looks like it was worked on by one.”
• “Lines of code committed ≠ amount of work accomplished.”
• Debt isn’t always bad — but it needs to be intentional and tracked.

This talk was featured in Team Treehouse Blog, New Relic Blog, Opensource.com, DZone, and OnTechnicalDebt.com.

Also Presented At

• All Things Open 2018 (session) — Raleigh, NC
• PyParis 2018 (keynote) — Watch on YouTube