Technical Debt: The Hidden Cost of Rapid Development
In the race to ship features, and stay ahead of the competition, speed often takes priority over perfection.
Startups and enterprise teams pride themselves on fast releases and rapid iterations, but behind every shortcut lies a trade-off. That trade-off is technical debt. Just like financial debt, technical debt isn’t inherently bad. In fact, it can be a strategic move. Although, if it’s left unmanaged it compounds over time, slowing down development, increasing bugs, frustrating teams, and eventually grinding the whole progress to a halt.
So what is technical debt, why does it matter, and how should engineering teams manage it?
What is Technical Debt?
Coined by Ward Cunningham in 1992, technical debt refers to the cost of choosing a quick or easy solution now instead of using a better, more time-consuming approach that would be easier to maintain in the long run.
According to research by CompTIA, Technical debt is a challenge for 74% of organisations, and 42% of companies say it is a significant obstacle.
When you rush a product to market, you’re taking out a loan on your future engineering time. At some point, you have to pay it back… usually with interest.
A study by DZone.com informed us that on average, developers spend 33% of their time dealing with technical debt.
Examples of Technical Debt
• Hardcoded values instead of using configuration
• Poorly documented APIs or systems
• Copy-pasted code instead of reusable components
• Skipping unit or integration tests
• Inefficient data models or database queries
• Outdated libraries or frameworks no one has time to update
Sometimes this debt is intentional (a strategic bet). Other times, it’s the result of inexperience, poor planning, or organisational pressure to “just ship it.”
Why It Becomes a Problem
Here’s how technical debt creeps from a small inconvenience to a major liability:
1. Slower Development Over Time
As complexity builds, adding new features gets harder. Engineers waste time deciphering fragile systems, working around legacy code, or avoiding parts of the codebase altogether.
2. Higher Bug Rate
Quick fixes and workarounds introduce fragility. What used to “just work” now breaks unexpectedly. Bugs slip through because test coverage is low or outdated.
3. Onboarding Becomes Painful
New team members struggle to understand undocumented logic or confusing architecture, increasing training time and reducing productivity.
4. Innovation Suffers
Instead of focusing on building new features, teams get stuck firefighting, refactoring, or rewriting existing code just to keep things running.
Good vs. Bad Technical Debt
Not all technical debt is created equal. Some tech debt is a smart decision, while other kinds quietly sabotage your team’s productivity. Here are four common types:
1. Deliberate Technical Debt
This is debt you take on consciously. It’s often a tactical decision to ship faster or validate an idea quickly. For example, building an MVP with minimal test coverage so you can get early user feedback. This kind of debt is acceptable as long as you have a plan to revisit and improve it later.
2. Accidental Technical Debt
This arises unintentionally and is usually due to inexperience, poor communication, or lack of technical planning. Maybe a junior developer wrote code that works but doesn’t scale, or a team underestimated the complexity of a feature. Over time, this type of debt can become dangerous if it’s never addressed.
3. Bit Rot (or Entropy Debt)
Even good code can become technical debt if it’s neglected. As systems grow, dependencies become outdated, architecture becomes misaligned, and parts of the codebase stop reflecting how the business actually works. If no one touches or maintains these areas, they decay and future changes become riskier.
4. Strategic Technical Debt
This is intentional, high-stakes debt taken on for business advantage. A team might knowingly ship with architectural limitations to hit a market deadline or outpace a competitor. Strategic debt can pay off if it's well-documented and the team commits to paying it down later.
The key isn’t avoiding technical debt altogether, it’s knowing what kind you’re dealing with and whether the trade-off is worth it.
How to Identify Technical Debt
If you're not sure where technical debt lives in your codebase, here are signs to look for:
• “We avoid touching that part of the code.”
• Frequent regressions after updates
• Disproportionate time spent on small changes
• High cycle time on pull requests
• Developers repeatedly complain about the same systems
You can also use tools like SonarQube, CodeClimate, or static analysis tools built into IDEs to flag complex, outdated, or risky areas of the code.
Strategies for Managing Technical Debt
Technical debt isn’t something you eliminate once, it’s something you manage continuously. Here’s how to stay on top of it:
1. Make It Visible
Track technical debt in your backlog or Jira board. If it's not visible, it won’t get prioritised. Use labels like “tech-debt” or “refactor-needed.”
2. Prioritise Ruthlessly
Not all debt is worth repaying right now. Focus on the debt that directly impacts performance, developer productivity, or business-critical features.
3. Refactor Continuously
Adopt a policy of “leave it better than you found it.” Small, consistent improvements (even during feature work) help reduce debt without major rewrites.
4. Add Time for Maintenance
Include technical debt payoff in your sprint planning. Allocate 10–20% of capacity to cleanup, testing, and architectural improvements.
5. Use Feature Flags and Tests
Separate experiments or risky features from the core system using feature toggles. Combine with strong automated tests to keep code flexible and safe.
When Debt Gets Out of Control
If your team’s velocity is tanking and engineers are burned out from wrestling old code, you may need a tech debt sprint. This is a focused period where all new feature work is paused to clean up key systems. This is more drastic but sometimes necessary to “reset the clock.”
You can also use metrics like Code Churn, Change Failure Rate, and Lead Time for Changes to quantify the impact of technical debt.
Technical debt is a natural part of building software. You can’t (and shouldn’t) eliminate it entirely. But you do need a plan to keep it under control.
By acknowledging debt, prioritising the right fixes, and fostering a culture of sustainable development, your engineering team can stay agile, productive, and focused on what matters most: building great software that scales.
