You’ve probably heard it: developers talking about technical debt, while the rest of the project team just wants to push forward and get things done faster. But technical debt is more than just a buzzword among developers. It’s a problem that can cripple an entire organization if ignored.
Technical debt isn’t just a term used in software development. It’s a universal issue: the small shortcuts we take today that can turn into big problems tomorrow. Maybe you’ve experienced it yourself. You jump into a project, make a few quick decisions to get started, and suddenly, six months later, you’re stuck in a maze of your own making.
This article aims to explain technical debt in a simple, relatable way – so that even those who don’t work in development understand the gravity of it. Because technical debt isn’t just a developer issue. When it grows, it’s rarely an isolated tech problem. More often than not, it’s a leadership issue.
And that might not be so surprising. According to Conway’s Law, systems will always reflect the communication structures of the organizations that build them. In other words: if you work in silos, you’ll end up building silos – in architecture, in user experience, and in code.
What Is Technical Debt?
In short, technical debt is about short-term solutions that lead to long-term problems. Just like financial debt, it can seem harmless at first. You borrow time and resources by opting for a quick fix, but at some point, you’ll need to pay it back – with interest.
In reality, technical debt is nearly impossible to avoid completely. It arises when we choose speed over structure – and sometimes, that’s a conscious and necessary decision. But it doesn’t change the basic truth: sooner or later, that debt has to be paid.
Common causes of technical debt include:
- Tight deadlines that force rushed solutions (“We’ll fix this later!”)
- Code written without scalability in mind
- Documentation and structure being deprioritized
- Systems patched together instead of being built properly from the start
Technical Debt in Practice – From Blog to Business
Let me use my own blog as an example. When I first started, the only thing that mattered was getting content out – the more, the better. Categories? Structure? I’ll deal with that later!
Now, a year later and over 300 articles in, I’m stuck in a jungle of content with no clear path through it. Every time I try to clean things up, I run into my own technical debt: poorly chosen categories, unclear tags, articles that are too long with multiple messages, and a structure that feels like rearranging furniture in an already crowded room.
Had I planned better from the start, I could’ve saved myself countless hours of cleanup. But this is a personal project. It has given me some opportunities and opened a few doors, but I’m not dependent on it. If I stopped cleaning up, or even stopped blogging altogether, the consequences would be minimal. I’d simply free up time for other things.
And I recognize the same thing in my own development projects. I’m not a developer – but I can code when I have to. And when I do, there’s almost always technical debt involved. Not because I deliberately cut corners (well, maybe a little), but because I lack the deep experience needed to build scalable, future-proof solutions. I create things that work right now – that solve an immediate problem – but rarely something that can handle complexity or scale over time.
That’s also why I’m far more comfortable in a leadership or coordinator role than in a pure development one. I have a strong sense of the bigger picture, I see connections between disciplines and people, and I’m good at asking the right questions. That makes me much better suited to coordinate development than to carry it out alone.
My Worst Encounter with Technical Debt
I’ve seen technical debt at its absolute worst. In a previous project, we worked on an internal system hardcoded by a former employee. The deeper we dug, the worse it got. Everything was interconnected in ways no one understood, and every small change was like pulling a stone from the base of a fragile structure. Sooner or later, it would all come crashing down.
It was like he’d built an upside-down pyramid – and we were just waiting for gravity to do its thing.
When we finally understood how bad things really were, the decision became clear. We could keep patching the system and maybe keep it running as long as customer growth remained modest. But we knew that if growth suddenly took off, the entire thing would collapse. And when that happened, it wouldn’t just be the system that failed – the company’s reputation would be at stake too.
So, we made the only responsible decision: we tore it all down.
Unfortunately, the price was high. We lost an entire year’s head start in the market because we had to rebuild the internal services from scratch before we could even begin on the external, revenue-generating parts.
Had we had unlimited resources, we might have done both in parallel. But reality forced us to choose – and technical debt had already eaten up the flexibility we otherwise would’ve had.
And that is the true cost of technical debt. It’s not just about lost time or money. It’s about lost momentum. Lost opportunities. Lost dreams.
A Broader Perspective
Technical debt is everywhere. Inga Strümke, one of Norway’s leading AI experts, said it well in a podcast:
“We’re struggling to build a solid digital foundation. And that foundation has to come before we can even talk about what we want to use artificial intelligence for. If the data systems don’t work, you can’t build good AI systems either. It just doesn’t work. You’ll end up with a patchwork mess.”
I highly recommend watching at least a couple of minutes of the podcast clip on YouTube where she talks about this challenge – and why getting the foundation right matters.
I’ve said it myself, many times: “It’s just a matter of…”
But now, whenever I hear someone say it – or catch myself thinking it – I feel that little knot in my stomach. Because it’s rarely that simple. And often, that’s exactly how technical debt begins.
How to Avoid Technical Debt
Technical debt can’t always be avoided, but it can be managed and minimized. Here are some good principles to follow:
- Think ahead: Will what you’re building today still make sense in 2–5 years?
- Prioritize quality over speed: A solid solution now will save you from major headaches later.
- Refactor regularly: Minor maintenance along the way is far better than one massive cleanup years down the line.
- Document everything: It might feel like overkill, but you’re writing instructions for your future self.
- Be honest about when to start over: Sometimes the debt is so overwhelming that rebuilding is the smarter move.
Tactics That Actually Work
Being aware of technical debt is one thing. Handling it in practice is what counts. Here are some approaches that make a real difference:
- Write clean code: Not just code that works – but code that’s readable, maintainable, and extendable. Think of it like cleaning the kitchen before making the next meal.
- Make refactoring a habit: Continuous small improvements keep problems from snowballing.
- Use test-driven development (TDD): Write the test first, then the solution. It may feel slow, but it saves you from a lot of future bugs.
- Define what “done” means: It’s not just about whether something works. It also has to be clean, documented, and ready for what comes next.
- Hold technical reviews: Take regular checkpoints to assess architecture, structure, and maintainability before issues grow out of hand.
- Make technical debt visible: In agile workflows (like Scrum), track tech debt as backlog items so it’s visible to both developers and leadership – and can be prioritized properly.
And maybe most important of all: perfection isn’t the goal. Some technical debt can be a conscious, strategic decision. But only if you know what you’re doing – and you’re the one in control.
One Final Reminder
Also, don’t over-optimize too early. A system that’s too complex too soon can become a debt bomb – especially if your future needs never materialize. It’s about solving today’s needs in a way that leaves the door open for tomorrow, without overbuilding in advance.
This mindset is central to agile development. You build what’s needed now, and evolve it as you go. That means technical debt becomes a natural part of the journey – but the key is awareness. When you see it, acknowledge it, and handle it early, you can grow in a healthy way without being strangled by the past.
And this is where the line between competence and experience becomes clear. Writing good code is one thing. Knowing how much to build, and how to keep future options open without overengineering – that takes experience. It’s a judgment that matures over time. No matter how smart a developer or how advanced your AI assistant is, they can’t fully predict that.
Because even with AI as a powerful tool, it still takes human experience to ask the right questions – and wisdom to know when the answer needs a human judgment.
In Summary
Technical debt is like a credit card with a sky-high interest rate. The longer you ignore it, the more expensive it gets.
And it doesn’t just exist in IT.
Imagine a road construction project where they save money by making the road half a meter narrower. It works – until traffic increases, and the road has to be widened. Suddenly, the cost is far higher than it would’ve been to just build it right the first time.
The same happens in construction when you use cheap materials to stay within budget – only to find yourself replacing the entire roof ten years later. That’s deferred maintenance. Or in business, when companies cut corners in customer service to save time – and later spend a fortune trying to repair their reputation.
In healthcare, we call it treatment backlog – when operations are delayed until the patient gets worse, making the eventual treatment both more complicated and more expensive. In education, it’s called a knowledge gap or competency debt – when students or employees don’t receive the training they need, and we have to invest heavily later just to catch up.
Across all sectors, the principle is the same: Shortcuts today become detours tomorrow.
So next time you’re tempted to go for the quick fix, ask yourself: Is this something I’ll have to pay for later?
If the answer is yes, it might be worth taking the extra time now – instead of spending a year and a fortune cleaning up the mess later.
