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by JanneVee 1922 days ago
As I see it that this was a organizational culture failure where he tries to explain it with a technical debt problem.

I see the fingerprints of almost feudal organization structure the other aspects when I first read about the New Jerseys problem with COBOL.
1 comments
greatquux 1922 days ago
He's trying to explain that the reason you end up with so much technical debt in the first place (after explaining to a layperson what that is) is /because/ of organizational cultural failures.
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JanneVee 1922 days ago
There is a difference between accruing technical debt on a legacy system is one thing, that is something that almost never can avoid. The other is to panic hire someone when the proverbial shit hits the fan is another story. That is the biggest dysfunction here that someone realized they didn't have the competence to maintain their COBOL code in house and it was their responsibility, but only after it stopped working.
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