> I have yet to visit this misterious universe you describe.
The trick is to have 1 backlog. Tech debt and features live on the same list and it is up to the PM to prioritize. Engineering’s job is to argue cost.
Good PMs will prioritize relevant tech debt or pull it in with feature work in the same area. They understand the tradeoff of go slow to go fast. They also understand when tech debt will never become relevant (because the feature is getting nixed, or hasn’t shown desired impact yet, or because the cost of interest is waaaay lower than the cost of paying it off in many cases).
This only works when engineers have the discipline to look stinky awful code in the eye and say “not today” and stay within agreed timeboxes. You blow this estimate once or twice, get the PM in hot water with leadership, and you’ve lost the trust.
All of the teams I've been on have used one list. I've never seen a PM prioritize the technical work. I still think it's a good idea for it to be one list, but it's not sufficient.
For teams that don't have a good PM, you also need a tech champion. Failing that, engineers need to inflate estimates and do tech work under other stories. Then everything becomes less predictable and teams never develop trust.
A good PM will understand that to get to C, we need to build and support A + B before we can build C, and plan for this. Like, if we built B to be a terrible barely working mess, they understand that this will make C basically worthless. But in my experience, this ability is surprisingly rare.
you need a smart PM who works closely with the CTO to craft the narrative to sales, that the next critical feature milestone is gated behind fixing said tech debt...
I and one, maybe two other coworkers will fix some of the tech debt while everyone else tries to avoid making eye contact, and we fantasize about a world where voodoo dolls actually work.
Swizec|1 year ago
The trick is to have 1 backlog. Tech debt and features live on the same list and it is up to the PM to prioritize. Engineering’s job is to argue cost.
Good PMs will prioritize relevant tech debt or pull it in with feature work in the same area. They understand the tradeoff of go slow to go fast. They also understand when tech debt will never become relevant (because the feature is getting nixed, or hasn’t shown desired impact yet, or because the cost of interest is waaaay lower than the cost of paying it off in many cases).
This only works when engineers have the discipline to look stinky awful code in the eye and say “not today” and stay within agreed timeboxes. You blow this estimate once or twice, get the PM in hot water with leadership, and you’ve lost the trust.
NAHWheatCracker|1 year ago
For teams that don't have a good PM, you also need a tech champion. Failing that, engineers need to inflate estimates and do tech work under other stories. Then everything becomes less predictable and teams never develop trust.
FridgeSeal|1 year ago
That’s a lot of words to say “more features lol” which is basically what every PM I’ve worked with has only wanted.
jakjak123|1 year ago
xarope|1 year ago
hinkley|1 year ago
jakjak123|1 year ago