One of the tricky problems while building software is finding the constant balance between releasing new features and dealing with technical debt. One common form of technical debt is bug surface area. Simply put, it’s the phenomena where as you develop new features the number of bugs increases at a much faster rate.
Why should you care? A larger bug surface area can lead to increased maintenance costs, reduced user satisfaction, and longer development cycles. These problems happen because in any non-trivial project features interact with each other, which creates more opportunities for bugs to creep in. Moreover, if new features have to work around a bug (call it Bug A) introduced in another part of the codebase, when you fix Bug A, you may have to go back and fix these workarounds.
It is essential to mitigate around the problems caused by bug surface area. Some techniques like implementing a modular design, avoiding rewriting core functionality between modules, thoroughly testing features with automated tests, and investing time in paying down this type of technical debt will help your project succeed. Remember, sometimes less is more – a lean, well-executed feature set often outperforms a bloated bug-filled one.
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