Over the past 10 years or so, it has been interesting to watch the metaphor of Technical Debt grow and evolve. Like most topics or issues in software development, there aren’t many concepts or practices that are fully embraced by the industry without some debate or controversy. Regardless of your personal thoughts on the topic, you must admit that the concept of Technical Debt seems to resonate strongly outside of development teams and has fueled the imagination of others to expound on the concept and include additional areas such as design debt or other metaphors. There are now a spate of resources dedicated to the topic including the industry aggregation site:
Since the time of my first household chores, I cannot recall an age when I did not look at a “to do” list of mine and see the need to prioritize things. Whether it was taking out the trash first because trash collection was the next day or recognizing the need to finish edits to a press release going out the next day, prioritization has always been the first step to me getting work done.
I don’t think I’m alone on this one. Prioritization is probably as important to getting things done successfully as the actual taking on of a task.