Re:Technical Debt
by Jedd on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @07:48AM
(#19980103)
As intimated, I'm not sure that the fuzzy language and world of economics is the best way to view such things, however ...
I'd accept that debts are a subset of liabilities, but not that 'liabilities are debts'.
A debt implies an externality, while a liability implies some generic exposure -- it's that which I focus on when considering (all) code as a risk to an organisation.
I suspect, however, that we agree on the fundamentals. There's some cost and risk to developing and trying to maintain any code base, and accepting that can usefully inform development and operations work better than thinking of code as a (near-)risk-free asset.
I'd accept that debts are a subset of liabilities, but not that 'liabilities are debts'.
A debt implies an externality, while a liability implies some generic exposure -- it's that which I focus on when considering (all) code as a risk to an organisation.
I suspect, however, that we agree on the fundamentals. There's some cost and risk to developing and trying to maintain any code base, and accepting that can usefully inform development and operations work better than thinking of code as a (near-)risk-free asset.