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How Technical Improvements Can Save Your Software Project
In modern software development, it’s common for developers to identify technical improvements that don’t always receive enthusiastic support from management (especially if they lack immediate or visible business impact). However, improvements like code refactoring, performance optimization, and automation in software development are crucial for ensuring long-term software scalability, security, and maintainability.
This article examines various types of technical improvements, explains how to communicate their business value, and outlines methods for measuring their impact—critical knowledge for any team pursuing continuous improvement in development and aiming for software development best practices.
Types of Technical Improvements in Software Development
Code Refactoring
Objective: Improve the internal structure of code without changing its external behavior.
Examples: Removing duplication, simplifying logic, applying design patterns, and reorganizing classes.
Business value:
- Reduces the cost of implementing new features.
- Lowers the risk of bugs from complex or tightly coupled code.
- Ease the onboarding of new developers.
Many teams ask: What are the benefits of code refactoring in agile teams? In agile environments, refactoring helps keep the codebase adaptable, enabling fast pivots and reducing technical bottlenecks.
Impact metrics:
- Average development time per story before/after refactoring.
- Bug rate per delivered feature.
- Quality metrics like cyclomatic complexity or test coverage.
Dependency or Framework Upgrades
Objective: Avoid obsolescence and stay aligned with supported and secure versions.
Examples: Upgrading to newer versions of Angular, Spring Boot, .NET, etc.
Business value:
- Reduces security risks.
- Prevents technical bottlenecks for adopting new tools or technologies.
- Lowers future upgrade costs—both technical and training-related.
When teams evaluate technical improvements in legacy projects, upgrading dependencies is often one of the most impactful actions.
Impact metrics:
- Number of open vulnerabilities before/after (e.g. OWASP, Snyk).
- The estimated maintenance time is tied to legacy versions.
- Compatibility checks with third-party tools.
Performance Improvements
Objective: Improve response times and optimize resource usage.
Examples: Optimizing database queries, implementing caching, and frontend performance tuning.
Business value:
- Enhances user experience.
- Lowers infrastructure costs (CPU, memory, runtime).
- Increases scalability without large architectural changes.
Teams frequently ask how to improve software performance in production. The answer often lies in targeted technical improvements like query optimization and caching strategies.
Impact metrics:
- Average and peak response times before/after.
- The monthly cost of servers or cloud resources.
User satisfaction indices (Net Promoter Score, CSAT).
CI/CD and Testing Automation
Objective: Reduce manual intervention, accelerate releases, and prevent regressions.
Examples: Expanding automated tests, creating pipelines, and implementing automatic validations.
Business value:
- Reduces human errors.
- Increases deployment frequency.
- Detects defects earlier, reducing the cost per defect.
Understanding the benefits of automated testing and the broader CI/CD benefits is crucial for teams wanting smoother, faster releases.
Impact metrics:
- Deployment frequency.
- Mean time to recovery (MTTR).
- Percentage of tasks rejected by QA.
Reducing Technical Debt
Objective: Decrease technical compromises that slow down future development.
Examples: Replacing temporary solutions, decoupling modules, and introducing architectural patterns.
Business value:
- Improves the predictability of the product roadmap.
- Reduces team turnover due to technical frustration.
- Avoids costly future technical roadblocks.
A common dilemma is technical debt vs. technical improvements: what should you prioritize? The reality is they’re closely linked—investing in technical improvements often prevents future technical debt from accumulating.
Impact metrics:
- Average time to resolve bugs related to that debt.
- Estimates vs. actual implementation times.
- Internal surveys on technical team satisfaction.
Summary
| Type of Improvement | Business Value | Impact Metrics |
| Code Refactoring | – Faster feature delivery- Fewer bugs- Easier onboarding | – Dev time per story (before/after)- Bug rate per feature- Cyclomatic complexity, test coverage |
| Dependency/Framework Upgrades | – Reduce security risk- Avoid technical blockers- Lower future upgrade costs | – Vulnerabilities before/after- Maintenance time on legacy- Tool compatibility analysis |
| Performance Improvements | – Better UX- Lower infra costs- Scalable systems | – Response time (avg/peak)- Monthly infra cost- User satisfaction (NPS, CSAT) |
| CI/CD & Testing Automation | – Fewer human errors- Faster releases- Early bug detection | – Deployment frequency- MTTR- QA rejection rate |
| Reducing Technical Debt | – More predictable roadmap- Higher team morale- Prevent future blocks | – Bug resolution time- Estimate accuracy- Team satisfaction (internal surveys) |
How to Present the Business Value of Technical Improvements
Managers sometimes wonder when to apply technical improvements in agile projects. The key is to translate technical improvements into business terms:
- Speak about risk and opportunity cost
“If we don’t upgrade this library, we’re exposed to known vulnerabilities. If exploited, we could lose X days of work or face fines.”
- Connect technical improvements to delivery speed
“Refactoring this module could reduce the estimated effort for future features by 40%.”
- Use relatable analogies
“It’s like changing the oil in your car. It won’t make it faster today, but without it, the engine could fail.”
- Support your arguments with historical data
Highlight past bugs, delays, or integration issues as evidence of the cost of neglecting technical improvements.
“Last time we didn’t replace that library when its endOfLive was announced, and then we had to run to replace it, losing X clients due to the downtime of the platform.”
Tools for Measuring Technical Improvements
Modern tools help quantify the benefits of technical improvements:
- SonarQube: Tracks technical debt, code duplication, complexity, and coverage.
- New Relic, Datadog, Prometheus: Monitor performance and infrastructure health.
- Jira/YouTrack Metrics: Analyze resolution times, bug trends, and development velocity.
- Snyk/OWASP Dependency-Check: Identify security vulnerabilities.
- Internal surveys or DORA Metrics: Measure team stability and productivity.
These tools make it easier to demonstrate the impact of technical improvements on software scalability and the overall development process.
Conclusion
Technical improvements may not always provide immediate ROI. However, neglecting them can create significant risks to software scalability, security, efficiency, and team morale. To persuade management, it’s critical to translate these improvements into business outcomes, support them with measurable data, and align them with strategic product goals.
Investing in development process improvements and systematically addressing technical debt is not a luxury—it’s the foundation for sustainable, high-quality software development.
