10,000+ warnings is people problem

When you read "there is always a problem and it's always a people problem" it's easy to get the wrong idea. Technical problems and people problems are almost always deeply intertwined.

For example, suppose you're part of a team that has let warnings accumulate one on top the other over many months until they now number 10,000+. Aside from the obvious technical problem of having 10,000+ warnings the team has a much deeper people problem.

Ask yourself the question - why does the team continue to live with the pain of 10,000+ warnings? Their answer is "that's how its always been". Sure the number creeps ever upward, but what does that matter when they're up to 10,000+? The team have had so many warnings for so long that they no longer even think about them! That's abstraction!

And given that the team don't even see 10,000+ warnings as a problem will they be motivated to get rid of them? Unlikely. They've lived with 10,000+ warnings for so long they've become comfortable with the discomfort they cause! Of course they claim they're not in discomfort. Abstraction again!

They are caught in a vicious circle of blindness and numbness. To solve this people problem the first step is to somehow get the team to see and feel the pain 10,000+ warnings are causing. That will be difficult. Then you'll have to get individuals to change their behaviour. That will be difficult too.

Oh, and you also have a smaller problem - 10,000+ warnings.