deciding-investment-timing

Decide when to invest effort by assessing whether deferral increases or decreases total cost through compound effects versus learning. Use when: (1) asked to choose between fixing technical debt now versus deferring it, (2) immediate refactoring is advocated without considering what would be learned by waiting, (3) timing decisions are based on feelings about code quality rather than economics, (4) quick fixes are recommended without asking whether they make future fixes harder.