Through a case study of breaking up a monolithic and intertwined database (ain’t nobody got those, right?), some things about technical debt became clearer.
Leaning into the analogy to “debt”, how can we tell the difference between good and regrettable technical debt? What is the true cost of a choice to e.g. share a database, and what does it take to change it? When is the right time to tackle something like this, and how can we tell? Sharing our experience with these questions will set you up for success with your own enormous debt payment.