Glossary What is Technical Debt?
By null / 1 Jan 2023 / Topics: IT optimization Application development
Technical debt is an estimated measure of the cost to replace an aging or recently adopted solution that provides limited benefits. The previous solution is often chosen due to its affordable nature and ability to deliver a fast return on investment.
Replacing the original solution becomes imperative as technical innovations emerge and organizations develop a clear understanding of their technology strategy. Technical debt can grow over time as organizations often need to adopt additional technology or provide re-occurring and manual maintenance to continue meeting defined objectives.
Software development teams often resist technical debt because it can have negative consequences. Startups face a tough choice between incurring technical debt or risking delays in launching their products and solutions due to the pressure to deliver quickly. Managing technical debt is possible for both agile teams and large organizations. Teams that follow the waterfall development process — which proceeds in sequence through all project stages, including requirements, analysis, design, implementation, testing and maintenance — prefer a more documentation-heavy approach that considers the audience. Business executives tend to be more receptive to the idea of technical debt because they understand the tradeoffs involved. Technical teammates, however, often have a zero-tolerance policy due to their resource-oriented mindset. Comparing technical debt to financial debt can be helpful as it can be manageable until it becomes a significant issue. Therefore, the context is critical, and understanding the tradeoffs involved is often crucial.
As time goes on, it becomes imperative to address technical debt or risk incurring more costs and hindering your organization’s capabilities. Overcoming technical debt can involve replacing multiple solutions with a single, comprehensive tool or modernizing aging systems that lack needed capabilities.
