A Culture of Credit
In the United States, and worldwide, we love credit. Why? Credit allows us to accomplish things that would otherwise be unachievable. Take for example, buying a house. Based on an individual’s monthly income and credit score, a bank will issue a loan for the purchase of a home. You may have a “medial” $50,000 in your bank account, yet you’re capable of purchasing a $500,000 home. This concept would seem absurd to the bartering culture of the 1800s, yet we thrive on credit because it allows us to have our cake now and pay for it later.
The software industry suffers from this luxury. Businesses are capable, and even encouraged, to put immense amounts of debt on the table. In the same sense that consumers are willing to accrue debt to purchase goods they can’t afford, businesses are willing to accrue technical debt to purchase features they can’t afford. It’s often a worthwhile trade-off, though. Features attract customers, and the technical debt accrued will likely remain invisible for some duration, allowing business to carry on as usual.
But it’s no wonder there are an enormous amount of projects that languish from prolific technical debt; it’s ingrained in our social culture. Technical debt can be managed, just like credit card debt. There’s a smart way to use technical credit. Paying off credit cards in-full allows consumers to generate free points. Paying off technical debt allows businesses to generate free customers. Not everyone is capable of managing technical debt, which is no surprise. In a socioeconomic culture filing millions of bankruptcies a year, who’s to expect we won’t fall into the same trap with software?