Zen and the Art of Merging Code
Each morning the team gathered to speak of yesterday, today, and blockers. A new developer asked the senior, “Why do we do this every day?” The senior replied, “So that we remember we are not alone.” The developer asked, “But I am blocked by nothing and working on the same thing as yesterday.” The senior […]
A junior developer ran the program, and a stack trace fifty lines deep appeared. The junior cried, “There are so many places where this went wrong!” The senior developer asked, “Did the error happen in fifty places, or in one?” The junior pointed to the topmost line. The senior smiled. “And from where did that […]
“We must pay down this debt!” declared the team lead. The senior developer asked, “If you pay it all, what will you owe then?” And, “Who is the creditor of technical debt?” Reflections We speak of technical debt as if it were a financial obligation, complete with interest rates and creditors waiting impatiently for payment. […]
