The Agile Executive

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pumpkinjuice/229764922/

Click here for my just published interview on Technical Debt. Major themes discussed in the interview are as follows:

• The nature of technical debt
• Tactical and strategic effects of technical debt
• How the technical debt metric enables you to communicate across levels and functions
• What Toxic Code is and how it is related to Net Present Value
• The atrocious nature of code with a high Error Feedback Ratio
• Cyclomatic complexity as a predictor of error-proneness
• Use of heat maps in reducing technical debt
• Use of density of technical debt as a risk indicator
• How and when to use technical debt to ‘stop-the-line’
• Use of technical debt in governing software

To illuminate various subtle aspects of technical debt, I use the following metaphors in the interview:

• The rusty automobiles metaphor
• The universal source of truth metaphor
• The Russian dolls metaphor
• The mine field metaphor
• The weight reduction metaphor
• The teeth flossing metaphor

Between the themes and the metaphors, the interview combines theory with pragmatic advice for both the technical and the non-technical listener.