> Only if you assume features are equal in terms of necessary effort and value (they aren't)
This is why we use story points and velocity, not time.
> and never leave technical debt behind for later cleanup (they do)
What does this have to do with anything? We do this all the time and capture this sort of thing for our backlog.
> or at least leave behind the exact same amounts of debt regardless of the implementation path chosen (they don't).
So? tech debt is tech debt and it's a bear regardless.
I don't know why you're being so aggressive with the gotchas, but if you think it's impossible to objectively measure engineer quality I don't know what to tell you and I wish you good luck in your hiring and career growth.
This is why we use story points and velocity, not time.
> and never leave technical debt behind for later cleanup (they do)
What does this have to do with anything? We do this all the time and capture this sort of thing for our backlog.
> or at least leave behind the exact same amounts of debt regardless of the implementation path chosen (they don't).
So? tech debt is tech debt and it's a bear regardless.
I don't know why you're being so aggressive with the gotchas, but if you think it's impossible to objectively measure engineer quality I don't know what to tell you and I wish you good luck in your hiring and career growth.