Hi, I’m Martin Hinshelwood, and today I want to dive into a topic that’s close to my heart: the true cost of poor-quality code. Over the years, I’ve seen countless organizations grapple with this issue, and the impacts aren’t just financial—they’re deeply ingrained in productivity, team morale, and even brand reputation. Let’s unpack this and talk about how improving code quality can become your organization’s superpower.
When we talk about poor-quality code, the first thing that comes to mind is bugs. Fixing bugs is expensive, especially when they’re discovered late in the development process. Here’s why:
Beyond the obvious, there are hidden costs that many organizations don’t account for:
Brand Reputation
Your product’s quality reflects on your brand. A high-profile example is CrowdStrike, which faced massive global fallout due to poor engineering practices. Here’s what happens:
Team Productivity
When teams spend hours firefighting instead of building, it drains morale and efficiency. Common culprits include:
Every hour your team spends fixing old problems is an hour they’re not innovating. Ask yourself:
Let me share one of my favorite examples: the Azure DevOps team. They went from needing 72 hours to validate their code to just 3.5 minutes by paying down technical debt. The result? They tripled their productivity, delivering 60+ features to production in a year where they weren’t even focused on features. Imagine what your team could achieve with that kind of efficiency.
Technical debt isn’t just about cost—it’s about missed opportunities. Think of it as money left on the table:
Turning poor-quality code into a superpower isn’t easy, but it’s absolutely worth it. Here’s how to get started:
When you commit to high-quality code, the benefits are exponential:
Investing in quality is like paying off a loan—you make small, consistent payments over time, but the payoff is enormous. With high-quality, working software delivered regularly, your organization can achieve its full potential.
So, what’s holding you back? Start investing in your team’s engineering practices today, and watch as your organization transforms.
If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.
We partner with businesses across diverse industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, engineering, transportation, hospitality, entertainment, legal, government, and military sectors.
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