CFOs: 5 Ways to Conquer Technical Debt

No matter how you slice it, technical debt is a real burden for any organization. But for CFOs in particular, it can be particularly challenging to manage, as there are often competing demands on limited resources. However, with the right strategies in place, it's possible to reduce and even eliminate technical debt entirely. In this blog post, we'll explore five ways that CFOs can overcome technical debt and improve their organizations' overall performance.

As a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), technical debt is an important issue to address. Rules and regulations around technical debt can put immense strain on your financial resources, leaving you with hefty fines or a damaged reputation if not managed properly. Fortunately, here we give you five crucial steps of how technical debt management can help provide real, lasting solutions.

 Reach Out to Technical Experts for Advice

When tackling technical debt, it's often best to practice reaching out to technical experts who can provide sound advice and guidance. Reaching out allows you to take advantage of the knowledge and experience technical experts have from similar situations so your strategies are tailored specifically for your technical debt needs. Not only can technical experts help with choosing the best strategies, but they can also provide processes and techniques for successful implementation. Whether you're dealing with a scope issue or resource constraints, technical experts can help get ahead of technical debt before it poses a major threat. 

Create A Plan That Defines What Technical Debt Needs To Be Addressed 

Crafting a plan for technical debt is essential to the long-term success of any organization. The technical debt that accumulates over time can hinder growth and impede progress, making it imperative that it be addressed in a timely manner. By creating a strategy that sets out objectives, timelines, and measurable outcomes, technical debt can be strategically managed. This process should include identifying technical debt early on, assessing technical debt regularly, establishing prioritization criteria, instituting preventative measures where possible, and continuously evaluating the effectiveness of technical debt management strategies. Defining technical debt needs and when they will be completed stores business continuity while keeping costs in check.

Develop a Strategy for Integrating Technical Debt Into Operations

An effective technical debt management strategy requires a holistic approach to integrating technical debt into day-to-day operations. Integrating technical debt considerations throughout the development life cycle and objecting processes, including planning, design commits, testing, and release cycles, is essential for helping teams identify tech debt before it has a chance to gradually accumulate over time. With such an integrated technical debt strategy in place, teams can start to assess the impact of technical decisions early on in the process and confidently manage technical debt while remaining agile. Furthermore, organizations should consider leveraging automation in order to gain visibility into current technical debt as well as identify potential issues and detect trends as they arise—effectively giving technical debt a ‘line item’ status within each team or organization. In doing so, technical debt can be mitigated before it piles up significantly, leading to greater operational efficiency and reduced costs.

Make Sure The Overall Organizational Goals Agree With Technical Decisions Taken By The CFO

Conquering technical debt requires technical decisions to be in agreement with the organization's overall goals. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has a paramount role in this area as they are usually viewed as the most technical team member of a company, meaning that technical decision-making tasks fall on their shoulders. A great CFO will understand an organization's business operations and use their technical knowledge to evaluate whether achieving technical debt relief is in line with the company’s overall goals. In doing so, technical debt can be eliminated without creating too much disruption within the organization or detracting from existing strategies. Furthermore, technical debt does not just have financial implications but also involves collaboration among employees of different backgrounds. As such, ensuring everyone is on board with the technical decisions taken by the CFO is essential for conquering technical debt quickly and successfully.

Stay Aware of Changes in Technology that Affect Technical Debt

Technical debt can be a daunting challenge for any technical organization, but staying aware of changes in technology can be crucial for conquering technical debt. As new technologies emerge, the technical debt of existing systems becomes more challenging and expensive to manage. Staying up to date on the latest advancements in technology, and how they may impact technical debt, is essential for success. Organizations must also plan ahead, understanding potential areas of technical debt in all projects from the start so that efforts may be made to prevent technical debt from growing out of control. With an awareness of changing technologies and thoughtful planning, technical debt can be managed effectively.

Conclusion

While conquering technical debt can seem daunting, it's important for CFOs to take the time and effort to do so in order to maintain a healthy financial state for their company. By taking into account the five tips we've outlined, CFOs can work towards reducing and eventually eliminating this burden from their business.