This is an interesting article but even more interesting is the series of articles that the author links to. I've been involved in several high profile products with different locations on the too much or too little debt axis. It always felt like economics could bring a more level headed viewpoint to the discussion instead of just relying on cargo cult mantras. I've skimmed and read the articles and they look like a good intro to the discussion.
As an example, I've found that most successful project have an extremely uneven distribution of debt with most of the code being glued together with bubblegum but a few critical regions having the polish of a high quality gem. Problematic projects tend to have an even quality with all parts having an equal level of 'cleanliness'. This article has some good discussion on why maintaining a similar level of quality across the system might not be a good idea:
http://www.alphaitjournal.com/2009/06/cross-discovering-asse...
Comments
This is an interesting article but even more interesting is the series of articles that the author links to. I've been involved in several high profile products with different locations on the too much or too little debt axis. It always felt like economics could bring a more level headed viewpoint to the discussion instead of just relying on cargo cult mantras. I've skimmed and read the articles and they look like a good intro to the discussion.
As an example, I've found that most successful project have an extremely uneven distribution of debt with most of the code being glued together with bubblegum but a few critical regions having the polish of a high quality gem. Problematic projects tend to have an even quality with all parts having an equal level of 'cleanliness'. This article has some good discussion on why maintaining a similar level of quality across the system might not be a good idea: http://www.alphaitjournal.com/2009/06/cross-discovering-asse...