Assessment Tool Gauges Cost of Technology Decisions

Higher Digital, a provider of consulting, software, and data benchmarking tools for higher education, has created a new assessment tool focused on the organizational behaviors and conditions that lead to "technical debt." The Technical Debt Assessment is free, confidential, and takes only a few minutes to complete, according to the company.

Defined as "the deferred maintenance cost resulting from prior technology decisions," technical debt can lead to performance degradation of critical systems, increased expenses, difficulty in changing systems and processes, and other negative effects, Higher Digital explained in a news announcement. It can result from lack of proper maintenance, or even be created when software is "purchased without centralized coordination, customized beyond the limits of the vendor's software framework, and/or integrated with other systems without enterprise architecture planning."

The Technical Debt Assessment offers recommendations tailored to the institution for reducing technical debt — practices which "have shown to correlate with better outcomes ranging from improved data consistency, better system performance, greater progress on technology initiatives, and more consistent IT budget compliance," the company said.

"It's easy to see technical debt as a technology problem, but it's not. It's a business and organizational prioritization problem that requires a sober understanding of how much Technical debt exists and how to slow down or stop its growth," commented Wayne Bovier, CEO and co-founder of Higher Digital, in a statement. "Technical debt is a key performance indicator of digital health, and it has the potential to single-handedly cost an institution its future, but to understand how to combat technical debt, you first need to know where you stand. We created this assessment to help individuals evaluate their institution's technical debt and implement recommendations to reduce it."

For more information, visit the Higher Digital site.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • simplified, abstract illustration focusing on the negative side of generative AI misuse, balancing the concepts of cybersecurity and human impact

    Researchers Provide Breakdown of Generative AI Misuse

    In an effort to clarify the potential risks of GenAI and provide "a concrete understanding of how GenAI models are specifically exploited or abused in practice, including the tactics employed to inflict harm," a group of researchers from Google DeepMind, Jigsaw, and Google.org recently published a paper entitled, "Generative AI Misuse: A Taxonomy of Tactics and Insights from Real-World Data."

  • clock with gears and digital circuits inside

    Report Pegs Cost of AI at Nearly $300K Per Minute

    A new report from cloud-based data/BI specialist Domo provides a staggering estimate of the minute-by-minute impact of today's generative AI boom.

  • stylized illustration of a college administrator lying awake in a cozy bed, looking thoughtful

    When Thinking About Data, What Keeps You Up at Night?

    The proliferation of technology in education means we have more data about how, what and if students are learning than ever before. The question is, how do we ensure that data gets into the hands of the people who can use it to improve teaching and learning, without invading a student or educator's privacy?

  • a glowing gaming controller, a digital tree structure, and an open book

    Report: Use of Game Engines Expands Beyond Gaming

    Game development technology is increasingly being utilized beyond its traditional gaming roots, according to the recently released annual "State of Game Development" report from development and DevOps solutions provider Perforce Software.