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Technical debt is one of the most important (and often misunderstood) concepts in software development. It describes the future cost a team will have to pay due to technical decisions made today to move faster, due to lack of resources, or suboptimal design choices. As with financial debt, it's not necessarily a bad thing: it can be a strategic tool, as long as it's managed consciously.
What is Technical Debt?
In simple terms, technical debt is the accumulation of undone work that, sooner or later, will require time, effort, and money to remediate.
It occurs when:
- a fast but sub-optimal solution is chosen to meet a deadline;
- the code grows rapidly without a coherent architectural vision;
- the technologies adopted become obsolete;
- there is a lack of automated testing, documentation, or development processes solid.
The father of the metaphor, Ward Cunningham, compared technical debt to interest on financial debt: the longer you ignore it, the more expensive it becomes to repay.
Types of Technical Debt
Not all technical debt is the same. A useful distinction is:
1. Intentional technical debt
It arises from deliberate choices.
Example: “We accept this suboptimal solution to release the product by the trade show, we'll fix it later.”
It's often a strategic decision.
2. Unintentional Technical Debt
It arises without the team realizing it: poor communication, lack of review, uncontrolled code growth.
This is the most dangerous form.
3. Technology Debt
Obsolete technologies, outdated dependencies, no longer supported infrastructure.
4. Process Debt
Ineffective development processes, lack of CI/CD, and repetitive manual testing slow everything down.
Why is Technical Debt a problem?
The most common symptoms are:
- increasingly long development times;
- frequent bugs and regressions;
- poor code maintainability;
- frustrated teams and difficulty retaining talent;
- security risks, especially if dependencies are not updated.
Technical debt tends to grow exponentially: neglecting it today means paying much more tomorrow.
How to address and manage Technical Debt Debt
1. Recognize it and make it visible
Technical debt can't be a "ghost." It's necessary to map, catalog, and publicize what creates inefficiencies.
Useful tools:
- dedicated backlog in Jira/Trello/Linear;
- code scanning (SonarQube, CodeClimate);
- architectural decision records (ADR).
2. Classify and prioritize
Not all debt needs to be paid immediately. It is evaluated based on:
- business impact;
- risk;
- frequency with which that part of the code is touched;
- estimated cost of its resolution.
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| Impact vs. Effort matrix |
3. Incorporate Technical Debt into the Development Cycle
Most mature companies dedicate:
- a fixed percentage of capacity (e.g., 15–30%) to technical debt;
- continuous refactoring during features;
- periodic hardening or tech excellence sprints.
4. Automate
Automation = reduction of future debt:
CI/CD, automated testing, linting, code formatting, security scanning.
5. Document and share decisions
Don't eliminate debt, but justify its existence. Documenting why a shortcut was taken prevents it from being seen as a random mistake in the future.
6. Constant monitoring
As with a financial statement, continuous monitoring is needed.
Useful indicators:
- development lead time;
- failed build cycles;
- code churn;
- recurring bugs.
The role of management
Technical debt is often ignored not because of a lack of technical skills, but because of poor organizational awareness. Management must understand that:
- Less debt means faster time to market;
- Software quality is an investment, not a cost;
- Ignoring it inevitably leads to delays and unexpected costs.
In conclusion
Technical debt is not the enemy, it is a form of investment. It only becomes dangerous when it's not controlled.
A mature team monitors it, manages it, reduces it in a structured way, and—most importantly—communicates it transparently.
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