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Dealing with Deferred Maintenance Everything worth investing in needs maintenance - from your car to your house, and also your software. Dan Eichholz, Technical Account Manager, Lisa Mason, Director of Resourcing and Pre-Production, and Alan Kremer, Director of Sales join Ryan Carlson as they discuss what long-term product support looks like, and what you can do if you’re dealing with a nasty deferred-maintenance headache. They’ll cover: • The symptoms of software on life support • How to tell if you should fix what you have or rewrite your software • What you can do now (making the best of a bad situation) • Real world examples of the cost of taking shortcuts • What a maintenance plan looks like and why it needs to be part of your growth strategy
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#NERDERYWEBINAR @THE_NERDERY
YOUR HOSTS
Ryan CarlsonTechnology Evangelist
@ryancarlson
Dan EichholzTechnical Account
Manager@deichholz
Lisa MasonDirector of Resourcing
and Pre-Production@Lisa_Mason
Alan KremerDirector of Sales
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OVERVIEW1
2
3
4
What Does the Long Haul Look Like?
How Technical Debt Impacts You
Case Studies You Can Relate To
Identifying Your Level of Technical Debt
Best Practices and Next Steps5
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DISCLAIMER
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WHAT DOES THE LONG HAUL LOOK LIKE FOR SOFTWARE?
CHAPTER 1 OF 5
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YOUR SOFTWARE WILL NOT LAST FOREVER
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HOW TECHNICAL DEBT IMPACTS YOUR SOFTWARE
CHAPTER 2 OF 5
overdue bills - 1st notice, 2nd notice !
The money pit - Tom Hanks
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TECHNICAL DEBT BASICS
What is technical debt?
How does it relate to maintenance?
Who owns the technical debt?
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SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE, TECHNICAL DEBT, AND YOU.
DEBT INCURRED OVER TIME
INHERITED DEBTS
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WHAT DOES TECHNICAL DEBT REPRESENT?
A future investment of internal effort
A deferred investment in capital
People taking on debt that they didn't’ understand Example: Reusing Old Website Content
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WHAT DOES TECHNICAL DEBT REPRESENT?
A deferred investment in capital
People taking on debt that they didn't’ understand Example: Making Your Minimum Payment on
the card with the lowest interest rate.
A future investment of internal effort
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WHAT DOES TECHNICAL DEBT REPRESENT?
People taking on debt that they didn't understand
A deferred investment in capital
Example: High Risk Mortgage with a balloon payment
A future investment of internal effort
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IT’S OK - EVERYBODY HAS TECHNICAL DEBT
¼ Quick ramp up time for HTML devs
¼ Use existing content and skills
¼ Use native libraries with WinJS
¼ Best for simple apps
¼ Security Updates / Patches
¼ Maintaining compliance in regulated industries
¼ Changes to 3rd Party APIs
¼ Supporting new devices and browsers
SOME DEBTS WE CHOOSE UNAVOIDABLE DEBT
¼ Updating Visual Branding
¼ Server Updates
¼ Development Shortcuts
¼ Framework Updates
¼ Supporting legacy browsers and devices
¼ Accessibility
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WE DON’T ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE
PURCHASED A COMPANY
CHANGE IN DEVELOPMENT PARTNER OR STAFF
CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP
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DID YOU EXPERIENCE A WAKE-UP CALL?
TIME SENSITIVE PROMOTION
COMPLIANCE OR REGULATIONS
NEED FOR SECURITY OR A CHANGE IN
TECHNOLOGY
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A simple 30 to 40 minute fix now takes 4 to 6 hours to complete.“- [redacted], client.
TECHNICAL DEBT IS A LEADING CAUSE IN LOSS OF PRODUCTIVITY
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UNMANAGED TECHNICAL DEBT TURNS SMALL FIXES INTO EXPENSIVE UPDATES
Create New Code
30MIN
Resolve bugs, look for similar bugs
45MIN
Back to QA
30MIN
QA Identifies Regression
Bugs
+15MIN
Refactor code so bug won’t happen again
2HRS
Developer Testing and
Documentation
+45MIN
Deploy
15MIN
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TYPICAL SOFTWARE UPDATES WITH MANAGED TECHNICAL DEBT
Create New Code
25MIN
Test and Publish
10MIN
Commit to Source
5MIN
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CASE STUDIES YOU CAN RELATE TO
CHAPTER 3 OF 5
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IGNORING THE MATH: ONLY MAKING MINIMUM DEBT PAYMENTS
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THE REAL COST OF LOW-COST OR “OFF THE SHELF”
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IDENTIFYING YOUR LEVEL OF TECHNICAL DEBT
SO YOU CAN MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS
CHAPTER 4 OF 5
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HOW TO IDENTIFY YOUR TECHNICAL DEBT
Document user issues (App Store comments, calllogs, FAQ’s, service analytics)
What do line-level employees spend the most time doing?
Identify time between updates or last major retrofit
INTERNAL “BIG PICTURE” DISCUSSIONS & DOCUMENTATION
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HOW TO IDENTIFY YOUR TECHNICAL DEBT
Performs an impartial code audit with a “fresh pair of eyes”
Provides a complete report of findings
Makes Technical Recommendations based on the data.
3RD PARTY CONSULTATION AND SERVICES
Educates parter on best practices for long term maintenance (version control, staging environments, documentation, unit testing)
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ENGAGEMENT TIMELINE AND ACTIVITIES
Intake Documented Findings
(Your Report Card)
Identifying User Problems:
Contextual Inquiry / User Research
Code Audit Scope of Work
Maintenance Plan
Decide to rebuild or make major updates?
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BEST PRACTICES AND NEXT STEPS
CHAPTER 5 OF 5
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WHAT ACTUALLY NEEDS FIXING IS RARELY OBVIOUS
Insufficient usability testing or user research
Lack of analytics and proper QA unit testing
Many small fixes and a lack of architecture planning
Lack of a governance plan and content strategy
Usability IssuesBrowser and Device incompatibility
Poor Performance and Load Times
Confusion over site ownership leading to stale web content
TYPICAL OBSERVATIONS TYPICAL ROOT CAUSES
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FINANCIAL PLANNING FOR PROJECTS
Consider your technology growth in both planning and your business plan.
Budget for maintenance and changes using a separate slush fund.
Take care of the small issues as they come up to keep things manageable.
Build a solid foundation at the expense of features.
BEST PRACTICES FOR NEW PROJECTS
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NEXT ACTIONABLE STEPS
Understand your business goals before
making technology decisions
Plan for future growth and budget
for unavoidable technical debt
Be realistic and start funding a maintenance budget now
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MAKING THE RIGHT SMALL INVESTMENTS
Document the symptoms but stay focused on the root causes.
Identify the product owner and empower them to make decisions forthe long term.
First, do no harm - Embrace QA.
Use analytics to determine if you can drop support for legacy browsers and devices.
BEST PRACTICES FOR SOFTWARE OPERATING IN THE RED
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NEXT ACTIONABLE STEPS
GET A FULL UNDERSTANDING OF
YOUR CURRENT MAINTENANCE
COSTS
CONSIDER TECHNICAL DEBT
COUNSELING (FRESH EYES)
THE TECHNICAL DEBT SNOWBALL
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WHEN REBUILDING IS THE ONLY OPTION
Don’t repeat the same mistakes. Address the root causes, not the symptoms. [Leverage User-Experience as “Success Insurance”]
Assign this project to somebody on staff that can be available during the transition to a new platform. [Governance]
Create a maintenance plan that includes a budget for both the old and the new.
Don’t throw good money after bad.
BEST PRACTICES FOR MAKING A PAINFUL TRANSITION
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SOFTWARE WILL NOT LAST FOREVER BUT YOU CAN EXTEND THE LIFE OF YOUR DIGITAL HOME BY MAKING SMALL INVESTMENTS OVER TIME.
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QUESTION BREAK
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WRAP UP1
2
3
4
What is the Long Haul?
How Technical Debt Impacts You
Case Studies You Can Relate To
Identifying Your Level of Technical Debt
Best Practices and Next Steps5
#NERDERYWEBINAR @THE_NERDERY
Topic suggestions or questions? [email protected]
More answers online at http://nerdery.com
Questions & Answers will air on The Nerdery’s podcast
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