Fix It Now

I recently had another discussion where the phrase "we'll fix it later" was used.  Why does this phrase flow so easily from our mouths?  It's not laziness - we work hard. It's not "kicking the can down the road" - experiences show we don't fix it later. It's a simple win of known costs today versus potential costs tomorrow.

But "we'll fix it later" is a loaded phrase.  It installs technical debt, and this becomes a significant burden over time.  It's like sweeping dirt under the rug - it doesn't go away. It just piles up until it becomes too big to ignore. Technical debt slows development and increases maintenance costs.  Technical debt makes future changes more complex and risky.

It is crucial for leaders to recognize the long-term impacts of deferring fixes.  Leaders need to prioritize fixing issues as they arise to avoid "sweeping dirt under a rug".  So, how do we encourage leaders to make the "right" decisions?

Well, Agile practices are supposed to help - dedicated maintenance sprints or blended sprints.  But simply putting maintenance tasks on a backlog isn't a solution.  Maintenance tasks compete against new feature development, so we are still faced with the same issue - struggling to balance new feature development against maintenance efforts, i.e., known costs today versus potential costs tomorrow.

At the root of this discussion is the quality mindset.  We need a shift from "fix it later" to "fix it now".  The next few posts will talk about ways to encourage a "fix it now" mindset.