Ask HN (about): Technical debt within a constantly changing business model
The founder of the company I work for explained to me today that I should not worry about technical debt until we have a business model that floats. Basically every project we do is throwaway until we find a path to the big money. My issue is that these projects aren't prototypes. They are iOS apps that are in the appstore and are built for clients. What do you guys think? Is everything a hack job until a business idea sticks? So far, I'm quite uncomfortable with the idea.
5 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 24.8 ms ] threadYou need time and money to minimize technical debt. In a startup, both of those are in short supply.
Unless your company is well funded or has other sources of revenue, prepare to be uncomfortable for some time.
As developers, our responsibility is to ensure our leads are aware enough of the cost to make good calls, and their responsibility is to make those good calls based on their perspectives, perspectives that include more factors than just our future development time.
Maybe the judgment call is to reduce features and focus on quality of features that were implemented on this iteration. Maybe the judgment call is to release a feature because the market demand is just right and the feature is "good enough".
This is a typical balance in our industry.