The Warning Signs That 90% of Teams Ignore
Your project seems to be going well. The team works hard, features are shipped, clients are generally satisfied. Everything is fine...
Until the day everything collapses. Overnight, nothing moves forward. Bugs explode. The team is paralyzed. The project implodes.
And you wonder: "How did we get here?"
The answer? You ignored the 7 warning signs that announced the technical disaster.
"Technical disasters don't fall from the sky. They are built, signal after ignored signal." - Martin Fowler
Here are the 7 signals that can save your project... if you know how to recognize them.
Warning Sign #1: "It Works on My Machine"
This innocent phrase hides a major problem: your development environment diverges from production.
How It Starts
- Developer A installs a dependency on their machine
- Developer B doesn't have this dependency
- Code works for A, not for B
- Workarounds are found instead of real solutions
Where It Leads
- Deployments that fail randomly
- Bugs impossible to reproduce
- New hires blocked for days
- Productivity that collapses
Emergency Solution
- Containerize everything with Docker
- Document the dev environment
- Automate configuration
- Test on an environment identical to prod
🚨 Critical threshold:
If this phrase is said more than 2 times per week, you're in danger.
Warning Sign #2: Exploding Estimates
A task estimated at 2 days finally takes 2 weeks. Again and again.
Hidden Causes
- Undocumented legacy code
- Unknown dependencies
- Missing or broken tests
- Incomprehensible architecture
The Infernal Cycle
- Optimistic estimate based on visible part
- Discovery of hidden complexity while developing
- Accumulating delays
- Pressure to estimate even faster
- Estimates even more disconnected from reality
How to Get Out
- Multiply all estimates by 3
- Require a technical spike before each estimate
- Document discoveries from each task
- Measure your estimate/reality ratios
⚠️ Alert threshold:
If 50% of your estimates are exceeded by more than 100%, your architecture is in danger.
Warning Sign #3: Tests That Break All the Time
Your automated tests fail for no apparent reason. The team starts ignoring them.
Symptoms
- Tests that pass/fail randomly
- Test suite that takes hours
- Tests ignored "temporarily"
- CI/CD that stays red permanently
Root Causes
- Tests dependent on execution order
- Polluted test data
- Tests too coupled to code
- Unstable test environment
Rescue Plan
- Delete all failing tests
- Start over with simple and stable tests
- Isolate each test (data, environment)
- Measure and optimize execution times
Warning Sign #4: "Let's Do a Quick Hotfix"
Hotfixes multiply. Each urgent fix introduces 2 new bugs.
The Vicious Circle
- Critical bug in production
- Pressure to fix quickly
- Dirty workaround deployed
- Workaround creates new problems
- More bugs, more pressure, more workarounds
Why It's Deadly
- Accumulation of technical debt
- Code becomes increasingly fragile
- Impossible to predict side effects
- Maintenance becomes a nightmare
Survival Rule
Never more than 2 hotfixes per month. Beyond that, stop everything and refactor.
🚨 Red zone:
More than 5 hotfixes per month = your architecture is dying.
Warning Sign #5: Nobody Understands X's Code
There are parts of the code that only developer X understands. And X just went on vacation...
Deadly Bus Factors
- Payment system: only Paul understands
- Matching algorithm: only Marie masters
- Infrastructure: only Julien knows how to deploy
- Database: only Anne knows the schema
Inevitable Consequences
- Blockages when key person is absent
- Fear of touching critical code
- Impossible evolutions
- Turnover that paralyzes the team
Immediate Action
- Identify all "bus factor 1" zones
- Organize knowledge sharing sessions
- Document critical code
- Set up pair programming
Warning Sign #6: "It's Temporary"
This phrase is the most dangerous lie in development. Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution.
Examples of Permanent "Temporary"
- "We're using this bash script temporarily"
- "This database is just for testing"
- "We're disabling this temporarily"
- "It's a workaround while waiting"
Why It Becomes Permanent
- It works "well enough"
- Other urgent priorities
- Fear of breaking something
- Refactoring cost that increases
Golden Rule
All "temporary" code must have an expiration date. No date = not temporary.
Warning Sign #7: Deployments That Scare
Each deployment is stressful. The team holds its breath. Weekends are ruined by rollbacks.
Symptoms of Sick Deployments
- Manual deployments with 50 steps
- Systematic downtime
- Rollbacks that don't work
- Testing only after deployment
Root Causes
- No automation
- Different environments
- Insufficient tests
- Monolithic architecture
Goal: Boring Deployments
- 100% automated
- Zero downtime
- 1-click rollback
- Multiple deployments per day
✅ Goal:
A deployment should be so simple and reliable that it becomes boring.
The Disaster Detector: Your Dashboard
Measure these metrics every week:
Technical health metrics:
- Estimate/reality ratio
- Number of hotfixes per month
- Test success rate
- Deployment time
- Deployment frequency
- Recovery time after incident
- Number of "bus factor 1" zones
Action Plan: Avoid Disaster
Immediate Urgency (This Week)
- Audit your 7 warning signs
- Identify the 3 most critical ones
- Stop all new feature development
- Assign 100% of the team to cleanup
30-Day Plan
- Containerize your dev environment
- Automate your deployments
- Document critical code
- Stabilize your tests
90-Day Plan
- Set up monitoring
- Train the team on best practices
- Establish technical reviews
- Create a culture of quality
Conclusion: Prevention is Better Than Cure
These 7 warning signs never lie. They always announce a technical disaster.
The question isn't "if" it will happen, but "when".
You have two choices:
- Ignore the signals and suffer the disaster
- Act now and save your project
Your team, your clients, and your future self will thank you for choosing prevention.
So, how many warning signs are flashing in your project?