Like financial debt, technical debt accumulates interest. Ignore it too long and it can bankrupt your project.
What is Technical Debt?
Technical debt is the implied cost of future rework caused by choosing a quick solution now instead of a better approach that would take longer.
Types of Technical Debt
- Deliberate: Knowingly taking shortcuts to meet deadlines
- Accidental: Learning something better after implementation
- Bit rot: Code that worked fine but is now outdated
- Environmental: Changes in requirements, libraries, or standards
Signs of High Technical Debt
- Simple changes take surprisingly long
- Frequent bugs in "stable" areas
- Fear of touching certain code
- New team members take long time to onboard
- Deployment is painful and risky
Managing Technical Debt
Track It
Document technical debt in your backlog. Make it visible.
Prioritise It
Address debt that's actively slowing you down. Not all debt needs immediate attention.
Budget for It
Allocate 15-20% of each sprint to debt reduction.
Prevent New Debt
Code reviews, automated testing, and realistic deadlines help prevent new debt.
Struggling with legacy code? Contact PYCO IT.