So McGurk factors that into not just his development cycle but IT operations, pulling in various tactics to create a holistic approach for managing technical debt on a continuous basis. As part of this approach, McGurk’s team documents and details the introduction of any new technical debt, which is then tracked through the organization’s ticketing system so that IT teams “can pull that all up and report it and look at it.”
McGurk also considers how each piece of technical debt impacts operations in five key areas: simplicity, flexibility, continuity, security, and transparency.
“When technical debt starts hindering any of those operating principles, then it’s risen to the level where we want to address it,” he explains.
McGurk and his IT team consider the level of impact, the risk to the organization, and the organization’s overall strategy to then prioritize what needs attention. They then make those determinations known, thereby creating visibility into the topic across the organization.
