Tech debt, which is inevitable for a software engineering and development business, is not just the responsibility of the business owner to regulate, control and address, but it is a team effort off all the staff of the business including the stakeholders. There are some specific actions which are meant for the stakeholders. When such actions are taken, it would effectively reduce tech debt and result in the proper functioning of the codes as well as the survival of the business on the whole. Now, there are several categories of the stakeholders, and every type has their specific role towards addressing tech debt and keeping it to the minimum.   

Senior Management Level

The senior management level of the business can help the business by some simple steps. They can make the code auditing and its documentation mandatory after production of it so that the person or team responsible can be traced during any defect detection. Special emphasis on test automation must be laid at the senior management level along with bringing a learning culture across all teams involved in the production of code. They should also promote reusable code repository within the business organization and across all business units so that it can be used as an off the shelf pluggable component.

Duties Of Project Manager

Code reviews and project documentation along with identifying and planning to reduce technical gaps among different teams are the job of a project manager or a team leader. Making plans and documenting the same for tech debt reduction to ensure effective communication among all the stakeholders is also a duty of the team leader. They must also identify and minimize any unproductive tasks. Using proper development testing and tools they must also speed up the process and reduce the cost of manual regression by using the proper framework and standard coding practices. They must emphasize on using effective tools like task management, defect tracking, software versioning and revision tools as well.

Architect And Technical Leader

Similarly, the duties of the technical leader and the architect are to design and develop codes with the layered application, domain modeling, and driven design, using reusable codes in open source frameworks and much more. Documentation and planning of the entire process, test automation, and continuous integration are some of the other important job of a technical leader along with maintaining proper communication with the other team members, owners and stakeholders as well. They should also be abreast with all the newer and latest technological trends and innovations, regulations and compliances to produce error free codes and log analysis and monitoring. For this, there are plenty of out-of-the-box solutions that you can use such as Loggly for log monitoring.

Role Of Application Developer

Similar practices and regulatory control should also be maintained by the application developer to produce clean codes, detect and report defects immediately, test each unit fully using proper and effective tools. Maintaining a clean, communicative and healthy work culture and environment with appreciations and prizes for jobs well done, organizing regular meetings can also help a lot in controlling tech debt. With all these, you can clear your tech debt just like you consolidation loans and pay off existing ones by proper prioritization.

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