Episode Description
As developers and admins, we often just need a quick and easy solution to a problem. But technical debt can accumulate quickly when those temporary fixes become outdated or redundant.
Too much accumulation can slow down or even crash your system. So what’s the best way to keep up your technical debt and maintain a clean slate?
We bring in Angela Mahoney, Co-Founder of RAD Women and Forcelandia, to share her biggest tips. One of the most important things, she says, is to keep track of your debt and stay ahead of it.
That way, “when the new thing rolls out, we're already ready for it. We won't be scrambling at the last minute,” she says.
Listen to this episode to learn:
- What technical debt is
- How to track technical debt
- How to make time for debt cleanup
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Episode Summary
Have you ever put a dirty coffee mug in a sink full of dishes? When you add another dish to the pile, the idea of cleaning just becomes more and more intimidating. Research has found that you’re much more likely to clean that mug immediately if the sink is already empty.
It’s the same with technical debt. As developers and admins, it’s almost impossible to predict the future. Often we just need a quick and easy solution to a problem. But technical debt accumulates when those quick, temporary fixes become outdated or redundant.
Too much accumulation can slow down or even crash your system. So what’s the best way to keep up your technical debt and maintain a clean sink?
Angela Mahoney, Co-Founder of RAD Women and Forcelandia, joins Host Kristi Campbell, Senior Salesforce Admin & Salesforce MVP, to share some of her biggest tips. Angela has presented on technical debt in 2017 for London’s Calling, Europe’s largest community-led event for Salesforce professionals.
One of the most important things to remember when dealing with technical debt, Angela says, is to maintain good communication across your team.
“We're all in the same metadata,” she says. “We're all responsible for this system, we just play different roles. But fundamentally, we are all a team.”
Listen to this episode of Serious Insights for Salesforce Admins to hear more from Kristi and Angela about what technical debt is, the best ways to track it and how you can make time for debt cleanup.
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Key Takeaways
Don’t let your technical debt pile up.
Technical debt builds when you choose a short-term, easy solution over a longer-term quality product. It’s okay to have a little technical debt, but it can slow down your system if you let it accumulate.
Your goal does not have to be eliminating technical debt. But to make sure it stays at a manageable level, make addressing it part of your routine. “It’s like dust in a corner,” Angela says. “If you don't handle it every now and then it just keeps collecting there. So periodically, you need to go vacuum it out.”
Take notes when you notice technical debt.
One way to make sure you’re keeping track of how much technical debt you’re accumulating is to make a note every time you notice it. This can be in whatever system or format you’re most comfortable with, like Jira or Excel.
Keeping track of that accumulation will help you in the long run. “People like numbers. It helps them make decisions,” Angela says. “It's good to have those numbers there when you're making those arguments to get time dedicated to dealing with technical debt.”
Make sure admins are communicating clearly with developers.
Admins and developers tend to speak in different languages. Addressing technical debt is a full-team effort, so it’s crucial that both parties are clear when it comes to communication. Don’t just throw a problem over the fence and hope your dev team will know how to deal with it.
“We all work in the same metadata, regardless of what we're doing,” Angela says. “We're all responsible for the system, we just play different roles. But fundamentally, we are all a team.”
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Featured Guest: Angela Mahoney of Forcelandia, RAD Women and Roycon
💥 What she does: Co-Founder of RAD Women and Forcelandia, and VP of Delivery Excellence at Roycon.
💻 RAD Women on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn
💻 Forcelandia on the web: Twitter
💻 Roycon on the web: Twitter | LinkedIn
🔗 Angela on the web: LinkedIn | Trailhead | Twitter
🧠 Angela’s big idea: “Ultimately, we all want systems that won't break, that will be sustainable. So when you add more business processes in, or you change them, or you take what Salesforce has produced, you want to be in a healthy spot to do that. But it takes everybody to do that. It's not just a single person thing.”
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Episode Highlights
Key excerpts from the episode transcript
💡 Technical debt can be a temporary solution, but not a permanent one.
[05:31] “It's like dust in a corner. I have plenty of experience with that in my house. But if you don't handle it every now and then, it just keeps collecting there. So periodically, you need to go vacuum it out. And just be aware of it. Know what your limits are.”
💡 Make notes when you notice technical debt.
[08:26] “It's a discipline. I'm a big fan of — whether you use Jira, or something homegrown, or Excel, whatever works for your company — but make notes of these things. Treat them as tickets. [...] People like numbers. It helps them make decisions. So being able to quantify what you've got, even though you might think, this will never get done. Maybe it won't. We all know that. But being able to say, we've got 14 tickets, or we've got 186, or whatever it happens to be — it's good to have those numbers there when you're making those arguments to get time dedicated to dealing with technical debt.”
💡 Keep your users and developers happy.
[17:25] “When your systems get frustrating, and you keep saying no to your experts — your developers and admins that are the experts on the systems — at some point, you run the risk of forcing them to leave, because they know what's best and you don't listen to them. And I think we all know that it's difficult to hire great people right now. So you also have to listen to your experts on your system. And if they are highly recommending something, do that to make them happier at work. Which I think sounds cheesy and it's hard to quantify, but it's really important that you've got happy software development teams.”
💡 Aim for clear communication.
[18:58] “We tend to speak in acronyms. We're very good at that in IT, we're very good at that on the developer side as well. So it can make it really hard for people to understand each other. And we have to be able to do that. In my experience, a lot of people lack confidence, for example, when they're talking with dev teams. Because sometimes we tend to — we shouldn’t, but we tend to put developers on a pedestal. They're solving the same problems we are, they just use a different tool for it. But developers will speak in a different language than admins, so it can be hard to have the confidence to say, This is wrong, it's not working. I'm going to make this change.”
💡 Don’t just ‘pitch it over the fence.’
[22:20] “I think there's a certain element of — admins do the admin work, devs do dev work, QA does QA work. And you open the door when you're done, throw it through to the other side, slam the door, move on to the next thing. And then on the other side of the room, [they’re] pulling their hair out. I go back to what Dan Appleman said years ago — we all work in the same metadata. Regardless of what we're doing, we're all in the same metadata. We're all responsible for this system, we just play different roles. But fundamentally, we are all a team.”
Top Quotes:
[07:58] Kristi: “You're less likely to set your cup in the sink in a clean kitchen. Once things have started to accumulate, once you've started doing things a certain way, it's easier to just add to the top of the pile, even though you know that creates problems for you in the future. It feels like an ingrained habit that we have to make efforts to work against.”
[17:45] Angela: “You have to listen to your experts on your system. And if they are highly recommending something, do that to make them happier at work [...] It's really important that you've got happy software development teams.”
[22:39] Angela: “We all work in the same metadata. Regardless of what we're doing, we're all in the same metadata, we're all responsible for this system, we just play different roles. But fundamentally, we are all a team.”
