本文最初发表于2023年4月26日.
你可以在6point6网站上阅读原文.
杰森Beange，管理企业架构师 at 6point6 shares practical steps on how organisations can address technical debt.
随着科技的飞速发展, operating within defined IT budgets can become a real challenge and running on an ever-widening fiscal deficit to incorporate these advancements starts to become unsustainable. 然而，应注意的不只是财政方面的债务累积. 持续的资讯科技发展, 随着时间的推移，增强和系统修改可能会导致技术债务的累积.
如果管理不善, 技术债务会严重影响每个人, 影响部门开支, 中断和扰乱服务交付, 甚至名誉受损.
什么是技术债?
Technical Debt can most simply be understood as the gap between the technology solution that should ideally have been commissioned… versus what is really in operation.
正如财政债务会产生利息一样，技术债务也会产生风险. 从财务角度来看, 你持有债务的时间越长, 你积累的利息越多，它就越复杂. 对于技术债务，风险持有的时间越长，发生事故的可能性就越大.
技术债务会在多种情况下累积，例如:
- 当做出偏离架构计划的决定时
- 当架构(包括. applications/code) are matured at different speeds and with different degrees of attention to patching, 升级和支持
- when deviations are made to develop something at speed for reasons of business need and these deviations are not monitored sufficiently closely
- 缺乏理想的弹性、可支持性、可伸缩性或可访问性.
It is not necessarily the case that older technology solutions and infrastructure are where you are most likely to find technical debt. 即使是最近开发的技术能力也在快速部署, or poorly 管理d implementations might fall victim to expedited delivery pressure resulting in an accrual of technical debt.
你持有的技术债务类型是什么?
积累债务的方式和原因有很多. 因此，技术债务可以以各种方式表现出来.
- 服务水平 -也许在代码或产品开发中采取了快捷方式，以提高部署速度, 带着被遗忘已久的回来解决问题的意图”当有更多的时间. 如果分配了时间，这个问题通常比较容易解决
- 交付 -升级或未来产品发布的路线图通常落后于业务需求, 因此进行了战术部署. 这些措施似乎是有效的，因此在其他优先事项出现时，这些措施仍然有效
- 投资组合 – service complexity often results in applications or products being delivered by multiple teams on different initiatives. 这可能导致具有不同功能的重复开发, 不同的开发路线图和矛盾和令人困惑的用户体验. 因此，处理技术债务远不只是技术管理. 解决这个问题将使企业能够采用新技术, respond to strategic or operational requests and innovate far more quickly and adaptably than if the debt is left unpaid.
偿还技术债务的最大挑战是什么?
技术债务的最大挑战之一是它可以隐藏起来, 系统正常运行，直到需要额外的容量, 或者直到在基础设施上放置了一些其他增加的负载或更改. At other times its impact is felt immediately by service users as front-end development takes place, 没有认识到底层基础设施所需的发展, 支持应用程序或代码.
但挑战不仅仅是技术上的. Problems with resolving technical debt can manifest themselves in a variety of ways as the below examples illustrate.
- The business doesn’t see the cost on a balance sheet or in day to day operations and therefore doesn’t recognise the value. Huge proportions of IT change budget can be absorbed just servicing the technical debt without reducing the deficit.
- The drive for improved user experience and new features overrides the desire to find and fix technical debt. The problem can be exacerbated by building more functionality and a richer user experience on top of existing applications with inherent technical debt.
- The demand and resource capacity imbalance that led to the debt accruing in the first place makes addressing the debt difficult. This is particularly true if the cost of the debt is not recognised and not understood by leadership outside of IT.
- Constructing a case for addressing debt which can be understood outside of the technical leadership group e.g. 由财务和部门/业务领导.
- Concern over the knock-on implications of changes to workarounds and other tactical fixes that are working at the present moment.
- 处理投资组合范围内的技术债务或依赖关系的困难和复杂性. 多个部门、利益相关者和优先事项使决策环境复杂化.
6point6如何帮助指导您完成技术债务偿还
Although there are challenges to reducing technical debt it is possible to pay it down if you adopt a methodical and disciplined approach.
教育 首先，让大家共同理解什么是技术债务，以及为什么它很重要. 通过将其转化为对业务友好的影响，与董事会和非技术领导接触. 例如, 增加了运营和技术成本, 增加了响应业务需求的时间, 服务中断的可能性增大，声誉受损的可能性增大.
通用形式的文档 以通用格式对技术债务进行分类和报告. 找出债务的原因, 受债务影响的产品或服务, 与之相关的风险以及解决它的好处. This will help to better track and prioritise addressing the debt in a way that everyone can understand. 根据影响，概率和类型e标记债务.g. 法规、安全性、可用性或性能.
分配责任和责任 解决技术债务需要坚韧和自律. 成功的补救取决于问责制和责任. 提名一名高级领导人指导技术债务偿还计划, 为技术债务补救带来动力和赞助, 确保它不会被忽略. 报告他们的进展应在最高部门或业务委员会进行.
获得业务支持 – Attribute the costs of and track the risks of technical debt to the department or team that owns them. Enable business leaders to fully understand the risk and cost they are carrying if action is not taken. The strategic importance of the technical debt repayment needs to be stressed and linking remediation to strategic objectives such as risk 管理ment and cost reduction helps to ensure that it becomes a shared imperative and isn’t just seen as somebody else’s problem.
修复预算 -必须为偿还技术债务编列预算, 为了避免它迷失在变革的要求中, 改进, 扩张, 以及所有技术团队都要面对的创新. 需要对资源进行分配和隔离.
管理补救过程- Once you have a complete view of your technical debt you need to formalise the approach you will take to addressing it. 把你的领导团队聚集在一起，就共同的优先事项、方法和报告达成一致.
为未来的技术债务进行设计 – 通过提高整个组织对技术债务的认识, 你可以有更好的信息, more strategically and culturally aligned conversations about technology investments and provisioning. Agreeing how you tolerate or remediate Technical Debt will help inform on-going conversations and decision making in the future.
〇战略接近 Develop a strategic technical debt repayment plan and methodically work through the process of eliminating all that you can. 当你从事这项工作时，不要错过重新思考你的遗产的机会. 例如，是否有可以完全退役的领域? 有没有新的方法可以避免昂贵的补救措施? 如果你的技术债务特别高, 也许是时候考虑一种全新的方法来管理您的环境了. 无论你决定做什么, 想想你释放给企业的价值, 不仅仅是你正在修复的技术.
监控- - - - - - 管理好现有的技术债务，并达成一致的管理计划, it is imperative that you maintain transparency and open lines of communication across the business to ensure you continue to make progress. 通过识别产生技术债务的反复出现的主题, 你可以减轻它的持续收益. Maintain open communications by planning for and discussing technical debt regularly and involve your board in celebrating progress.
获取技术债务是管理任何大型、复杂和快速变化的环境的一部分. 就像财政债务一样, 当它得到很好的管理和控制时，它可以使你更快地行动, 抓住机会，平衡竞争的优先事项. 如果它失去控制，就很难控制和偿还.
第一步总是要弄清楚当前的位置. 如果你想和我们谈谈我们帮助组织识别, 管理, 并偿还他们的技术债务，那么请不要犹豫 全球最大的博彩平台.
杰森Beange，管理企业架构师
专业知识: 数字化转型与企业架构e
From his early career in software development to his role specialising in the creation of architecture models at an enterprise level, Jason’s 20-year career brings a breadth and depth of experience across all architectural domains to envision and implement an effective strategy. 同时以专家的方式让所有层面的利益相关者都参与进来, 他可以为目标体系结构被很好地理解提供信心, 以及规定方法的基本原理.
