Run a Systems Dynamics Simulation of Technical Debt Generation over the Life of a 120 Day Project
The Technical Debt Simulator was created by David Norton
The model starts with a technical debt injection rate of 5%, i.e. 5% of code developed is debt, it then starts to rise day-by-day to a maximum of 15% (the base inject rate can be adjusted in the simulation). To keep the model simple, a linear rise in technical debt injection is assumed.
The following parameters can be adjusted: Team size, percentage of debt removed per day, the team's debit refactoring efficiency (compared with new code productivity), and individual lines of code per day.
The simulation calculates the number of FTE days it would take to remove any remaining technical debt. The model assumes that all technical debt, by its very nature of being debt, will need to be paid back at some point.
It does not as yet calculate the cost of that debt or the probability of the debt causing a major or minor issue. This will be the next model.