Want to know “what is technical debt” and how it influences your team success? Here’s a practical guide to help teams prioritize, manage, and resolve technical debt while keeping innovation on track.
Technical debt—it’s something every dev team encounters at some point, but few people really understand it. We know it’s there, lurking in the background, but what does it actually mean for your project? And how do you make sure it doesn’t derail future progress?
What is Technical Debt?
Technical debt is essentially the cost of short-term decisions that eventually require rework or optimisation. Think of it like a corner you’ve cut for a quick win—it’s fast, but comes with a price later down the line. Sometimes these shortcuts are necessary to hit deadlines, but just like financial debt, without a plan to repay that debt, it can snowball and slow everything down.
Why Does Technical Debt Happen?
The reasons technical debt arises are varied, but they often boil down to urgency or a lack of clarity. Maybe the team had to rush to meet a client deadline, or perhaps the product evolved faster than the original tech stack could handle. Whatever the reason, it’s important to acknowledge that technical debt is a normal part of development—it’s how you manage it that makes all the difference.
Key contributors to technical debt:
- Tight timelines forcing quick workarounds.
- Legacy code or outdated frameworks.
- Initial design decisions that no longer fit.
- A lack of refactoring and technical hygiene.
- Developer turnover or loss of institutional knowledge.
Types of Technical Debt
Not all technical debt created is equal. Some are necessary trade-offs, while others are the result of poor decision-making. Here’s a breakdown:
- Deliberate Debt: Shortcuts taken with full knowledge that the code will need improvement later. It’s a calculated risk.
- Unintentional Debt: These are unforeseen issues that arise from scaling or changes in requirements.
- Obsolete Debt: When old technology becomes a bottleneck, this debt stems from failing to update or refactor legacy systems.
How Does Technical Debt Affect Teams?
If you don’t manage technical debt effectively, it can start to weigh heavily on your team’s productivity and morale. New features will take longer to implement because developers are constantly working around old issues. Bugs multiply, quality decreases, and before you know it, progress grinds to a halt.
For developers, dealing with excessive technical debt feels like dragging a ball and chain—it’s frustrating and exhausting, not to mention the impact on team dynamics. No one likes spending their time fixing someone else’s shortcuts!
How Does Technical Debt Impact Sprint Planning?
Sprint planning is the perfect time to bring technical debt into the conversation. You can’t just ignore debt and expect it to magically resolve itself, so plan for it. Make it a habit to address debt regularly and prevent it from becoming a blocker to new work.
If technical debt isn’t managed well, it’ll disrupt your sprint planning. Teams that are bogged down by debt will find it harder to estimate work, and their velocity will drop as they struggle to balance new features with ongoing bug fixes.
Common signs include:
- Slower delivery times.
- Difficulty estimating tasks accurately.
- Constant firefighting to resolve issues.
- A backlog that never seems to shrink.
Prioritising Technical Debt Like a Pro
It’s one thing to know you have technical debt, but it’s another to manage it effectively. Here’s how to do it:
- Categorise: Understand the debt—Is it urgent? Can it wait?
- Evaluate Impact: What’s slowing your team down the most?
- Plan: Work technical debt into your backlog. Prioritise the most pressing issues but don’t let it completely dominate your sprint.
Set expectations with your stakeholders—sometimes a sprint focused on refactoring will lead to faster delivery down the line. It’s all about finding the balance between pushing forward and keeping the house in order.
Strategies Teams Use to Tackle Technical Debt
Scrum teams are no strangers to technical debt, but with the right processes in place, they can manage it head-on. Here are some strategies:
- Dedicated Refactoring Sprints: Carve out sprints purely for addressing tech debt.
- Bugfix Days: A day each sprint where the sole focus is on reducing debt.
- Automation: Automated testing catches potential debt early.
- Pair Programming: Two sets of eyes can avoid debt-causing issues during development.
Tracking Technical Debt in Your Backlog
Don’t treat technical debt like an afterthought—make sure it’s visible in your backlog alongside feature work. Some teams create a separate column for it, while others log it as stories. Either way, keep it on your radar during sprint planning.
Addressing Technical Debt in Retrospectives
Retrospectives offer a great opportunity to bring technical debt into the conversation. While retros are typically focused on improving team processes, adding a discussion on the state of the codebase and the impact of technical debt ensures that it doesn’t get overlooked. Teams can identify the technical shortcuts that caused slowdowns or issues during the sprint and brainstorm solutions to avoid them in the future.
By making technical debt a regular topic, it becomes easier to track and prioritize. This also fosters a culture of continuous improvement, where teams feel empowered to clean up old code and reduce long-term risks. Importantly, retros give everyone—from developers to product owners—a chance to align on the importance of maintaining a clean, efficient codebase, which keeps everyone accountable and on the same page.
The Role of Leadership in Managing Technical Debt
It’s crucial that leadership buys into the importance of managing technical debt. Without leadership support, teams can find it difficult to allocate time and resources to tackle debt. Good leadership ensures that addressing technical debt is seen as essential, not optional.
Common Mistakes Teams Make with Technical Debt
Here are some common traps teams fall into when it comes to technical debt:
- Ignoring It: Hoping it will go away won’t work.
- Focusing Too Much on Debt: Over-prioritising it at the expense of feature delivery.
- Underestimating Its Impact: Small debt piles can quickly grow into significant issues if left unchecked.
Communicating Technical Debt to Stakeholders
It’s essential that stakeholders understand the impact of technical debt. Use examples to explain how reducing debt improves velocity, code quality, and overall delivery timelines. Clear communication helps them see technical debt as an investment, not a cost.
Conclusion
Technical debt is an unavoidable part of software development, but it doesn’t have to be a burden. By understanding what it is, prioritising it properly, and integrating it into all your sprint events, you can keep your codebase healthy without sacrificing innovation.