User:KSmith (WMF)/Technical debt thoughts

Agree on a definition of tech debt ("good" vs. "bad") (vs. bugs?)

Figure out a reasonable ballpark percentage of time that should go toward paying down tech debt (but which can vary from team to team and quarter to quarter)

Figure out how to represent Tech Debt work in phab

Get public statement of commitment from Victoria and Wes

Can tech debt be quantified?

Examples of teams tackling tech debt well, using different approaches

Relate to refactoring (consider refactoring as part of wrapping up a feature)

Concept of a "Product Owner/Product Manager of Tech Debt", who prioritizes (based on input)

Dedicate one slide per quarterly checkin deck describing what the team has done/will do about tech debt (including introducing new)

Part of proposal to deploy something new could be a plan for dealing with long-term tech debt

Finally, remember: Your architecture is a cold blooded loan shark, who will just as soon take your installments, as he will bust your project’s kneecaps over a missed payment. (from http://www.softwareandi.com/2011/12/how-to-measure-technical-debt.html)