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Technical Debt Management Strategies

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2023

This feature thread tracks the development and enhancement of strategies for managing and reducing technical debt within Shopify's engineering organization. Initial efforts focused on categorizing debt into Yearly, Monthly, Weekly, and Daily types. The '25 Percent Rule' was introduced as a framework to allocate engineering time: 10% for Daily Debt (improving code encountered during regular work), 10% for Weekly Debt (addressing smaller issues identified as separate tasks), and 5% for Monthly/Yearly Debt (planning and prioritization). The emphasis is on fostering a culture that values code improvement and refactoring, encouraging engineers to proactively address debt as part of their regular workflow rather than as an afterthought.

2023

The 25 Percent Rule for Tackling Technical Debt - Shopify

2/16/2023

This post introduces a framework for categorizing technical debt into Yearly, Monthly, Weekly, and Daily types. It proposes the '25 Percent Rule' as a cultural and practical approach to debt management: 10% of time for Daily Debt (improving code encountered during regular work), 10% for Weekly Debt (addressing smaller issues identified as separate tasks), and 5% for Monthly/Yearly Debt (planning and prioritization). The post emphasizes that fixing debt is primarily a cultural shift that encourages refactoring and proactive code improvement.