In this second episode on Technical Debt, we take a look at how we identify and track debt. We start with Prudent Technical Debt, which is relatively easy to manage. We talk about ways to make sure Prudent Technical Debt gets included in planning and how to tie it to business value.

We'll then look at Reckless Technical Debt. Here, we consider how Deliberate Reckless Technical Debt can become Inadvertent Reckless Technical Debt as a team changes their beliefs without changing their behaviors.

Identifying and tracking Reckless Technical Debt can be a challenge. To help us figure out ways to identify Reckless Technical Debt in our code, we take a look at the SOLID Principles and The 4 Rules of Simple Design. We use these concepts to help us identify any useful static analysis metrics. Finally, we briefly discuss the proper outlook for use of metrics.

At the end of this episode, you should have a better sense of why Prudent Technical Debt is far less risky than Reckless Technical Debt and have a few tools for thinking about and tracking your Technical Debt.