Technical Debt Benefits
Our Technical Debt Assessment and Valuation Benefits:
- Get the vital answer to the question “Is your software an asset or a liability?”
- Define how much (more) money you will need to invest in order to remediate the code.
- Obtain data and insights you need to guide the fix-it process for the software.
- Identify projects that are likely to get in trouble at an early stage of the software life cycle.
- Determine if the technical debt is keeping your software development staff from responding quickly and effectively to customer requests.
Plus, you’ll get the tools you need to govern the software development process on an on-going basis to avoid the expense of future technical debt.
The deliverables you will receive from Our Technical Debt Assessment and Valuation:
- A list of identified architecture, design, coding, testing and documentation deficits that constitute technical debt.
- A combination of static code analytics with dynamic program analytics to give you “x-rays” of the software being examined at any desired granularity.
- A report or presentation that provides you with a dollar figure you can plug into your financial models, allowing you to objectively analyze your critical software assets.
- Easy-to-understand graphics depicting the quality of your code and the cost of your technical debt, enabling your team to zero in on the most hazardous projects and fix them in a prioritized manner.
- Operational recommendations that take into account various qualitative and quantitative factors that characterize your software development process, helping you make the best decisions about your ongoing strategy for this software development effort.
CASE STUDY
A venture capital firm asked Cutter Consortium to conduct a Technical Debt Assessment and Valuation for its software organization. The software organization acquired code two years earlier and development continued through an outsourcing company in another country. They were preparing to release approximately 200K lines of Java code, when Cutter performed the assessment.
In the course of conducting the Technical Debt Assessment, Cutter consultants identified various deficits in the organization’s software process. Cutter identified that both requirements management and project management were lacking certain disciplines that contributed to increasing technical debt. The Cutter consultants suggested various methodical improvements that would make a difference in future releases.
The Technical Debt Assessment successfully addressed three levels of concerns:
- Strategically: it reassured the VC firm and the organization’s CEO that the code base was worth continuing to invest in.
- Tactically: it gave the CTO the tools and visibility needed to manage the code base on a day by day basis.
- Operationally: it enabled the development team to focus on improving quality in a “biggest bang for the buck” manner.
Moreover, the engagement gave the CEO the metrics required for effectively governing the software process and (re)aligning it with marketing and sales activities. As the CEO was not technical, the ability to get an aggregate dollar figure for “paying back” debt and plugging it into the organization’s financial models was of great value to him and to the company.
Customizable for Your Needs
Our Technical Debt Assessment and Valuation can provide value to a vast array of stakeholders, including:
- CIOs looking to ensure delivery over development.
- CTOs in search of early warning signs your development project is in trouble.
- CEOs responsible for governing the development process effectively and ensuring the execution of corresponding go-to-market plans in a reliable manner.
- VCs determining how much (more) money to invest in your portfolio company.
- M&A/due diligence investigators, in need of assurance that the code you’re acquiring isn’t toxic.
We will take into account your specific needs and goals to develop an assessment optimized for you.
Arranging a Technical Debt Assessment and Valuation
Cutter’s Technical Debt Assessment and Valuation is most effective as an on-premises engagement. However, it can also be done as a largely off-premises engagement based on a snapshot of the code. For more details, or to arrange your Technical Debt Assessment and Valuation, contact an Account Executive at +1 781 648 8700 or sales@cutter.com.
ADD MORE VALUE TO THIS ENGAGEMENT
Cutter’s Technical Debt Assessment and Valuation is well-paired with our Agile Assessment, a quantitative and qualitative analysis of an organization’s use of agile methods, software engineering practices, and project management skills and capabilities. When the two are conducted jointly, Cutter will present your team with an integrated plan for addressing software quality deficits and software process deficits.