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Is Technical Debt Analogous to Financial Debt? Yes, Until It Isn’t

Not all debt is the same, but there's one analogy that always sticks: They all have to be repaid.

I started thinking about technical debt and how it impacts a company's ability to deliver. I have a tendency to think in analogies, and "tech debt" is a wonderful analogy.

What is tech debt?

" Tech debt is taking a loan against next month's income in order to buy a feature today."

The term was first coined by Ward Cunningham to explain the concept of borrowing against the future. But like all analogies, it's not perfect, as we can see if we compare and contrast tech debt with financial debt. I think that there are some interesting things to learn from this comparison.

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“Flow Thursdays” – A Day of Liberation With No Standing Meetings

In the course of all this scheduling turmoil, another amazing thing happened. We took a look at these meetings and asked the hard question: “Is this meeting really worth having?”

Last week I had the pleasure of my fourth “Flow Thursday” at Tasktop, a day where we have no standing meetings. I cannot tell you the joy that such a simple concept can bring.