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5 Strategies to Reduce Technical Debt with Modernization

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5 Strategies to Reduce Technical Debt with Modernization

Modernizing applications is a great way to tackle technical debt head-on. Your organization can reduce layers of debt, increase efficiency, and streamline processes by modernizing or replacing outdated systems.

Technical debt is a major burden that consumes 31% of IT budgets and requires 21% of IT resources to manage. It impedes modernization efforts, despite many organizations recognizing the importance of technology in meeting their goals.

A deeper look at Technical Debt:

46% of CIOs, VPs, and tech executives stated that their ability to pursue digital initiatives was closely related to tech debt.

Several practices contribute to technical debt. It can arise due to:

  • One-time fixes that wind up becoming permanent
  • Not upgrading systems that age
  • Prioritizing the quick delivery of technology above long-term gains
  • Developing one-off solutions to satisfy business objectives.

At the moment, many of these choices seems logical and required. However, as complexity increases, so do upcoming initiatives. Due to missed opportunities and resource waste, this downward spiral results in significant costs for the company.

How application modernization can help reduce debt

It is challenging to modify legacy apps as they are monolithic. Because of this, integrating them with technological advancements and utilizing the advantages they have to offer becomes challenging. Organizations can enhance agility and adaptability by updating legacy applications to leverage automation, AI, and machine learning.

5 strategies to address technical debt with the help of modernization

While the early expense of modernization causes concern, the long-term effects of ignoring technological debt are more harmful. It not only grows over time but also costs money in lost opportunities, making regular maintenance more difficult, adding to the complexity of IT, and degrading system performance.

Here is a road map that includes five strategies for modernizing applications to reduce technical debt:

1. Business-Centric Approach:

Technical debt is a business-related and technological issue.

You need to be aware of its wider effects, which include limiting innovation and demotivating staff.

Encourage cooperation between business divisions and technology teams to address technical debt. 

2. Gradual Reduction:

Completely eliminating technical debt is unrealistic and resource-intensive. Rather, you can try to maintain technical debt within a specific limit.

Avoid a high-risk approach and opt for a phased, consistent reduction.

Allocate specific tasks in each development sprint or incorporate small technical debt remediation tasks regularly.

This will help prevent the accumulation of debt while avoiding disruptions to the system.

3. Organizational Discipline:

Provide adequate funding and workforce to support your legacy modernization plan.

Involve business and IT leadership in financing decisions, and make sure there is clarity on the allocation of funds and how they affect different business metrics.

Work together to produce a cohesive picture of technical debt so that you can identify it quickly.

4. Next-Generation Modernization Solutions:

A major contributor to technical debt is legacy systems.

Adopt cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, cloud, DevSecOps, and CI/CD pipelines.

Cloud services reduce infrastructure debt, while CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps prevent debt accumulation.

5. Invest in upskilling:

Having the right skills is essential for the success of modernization projects.

Acknowledge the significance of IT team becoming upskilled in new technologies such as DevSecOps, cloud, AI, and microservices.

Assign committed people or teams to tackle technical debt, promoting knowledge and proficiency in the company.

Summary:

Though modernized apps have less technical debt, you have to take account of defective elements, security breaches, service outages, etc., while trying to modernize your old systems and decrease tech debt.

Don’t allow technical debt to limit the expansion and innovation potential of your company. Get in touch with us to have a thorough audit of your systems completed and to start the modernization process that will pave the way for your success.

Sources:

https://www.protiviti.com/sites/default/files/2023-03/infographic-2023-technology-executives-survey-protiviti.pdf