Shipping imperfect software is like going into debt. When you incur debt, you can do things faster than if you had to pay for everything upfront. Software debt takes five major forms: technical, quality, configuration management, design, and platform experience. In todayrs"s rush to market, software debt is inevitable. And thatrs"s okay-ifyours"re careful about the debt you incur,andifyou quickly pay it back. InManaging Software Debt,leading Agile expert Chris Sterling shows how understanding software debt can help you move products to market faster, with a realistic plan for refactoring them based on experience. Writing for all Agile software professionals, Sterling explains why yours"re going into software debt whether you know it or not-and why the interest on that debt can bring projects to a standstill. Next, he thoroughly explains each form of software debt, showing how to plan for it intelligently and repay it successfully. Yours"ll learn why accepting software debt isnotthe same as deliberate sloppiness, and yours"ll learn how to use the software debt concept to systematically improve architectural agility. Coverage includes Managing tensions between speed and perfection and recognizing that yours"ll inevitably ship some "not quite right" code Planning to minimize interest payments by paying debts quickly Building architectures that respond to change and help enterprises run more smoothly Incorporating emergent architecture concepts into daily activities, using Agile collaboration and refactoring Delivering code and other software internals that reduce the friction of future change Using early, automated testing to move past the "break/fix" mentality Scripting and streamlining both deployment and rollback Implementing team configuration patterns and knowledge sharing approaches that make software debt easier to repay Clearing away technical impediments in existing architectures Using the YAGNI ("you ainrs"t gonna need it") approach to strip away unnecessary complexity Using this bookrs"s techniques, senior software leadership can deliver more business value; managers can organize and support development teams more effectively; and teams and team members can improve their performance throughout the development lifecycle.