Technical debt
Technical debt is the additional cost of maintaining or changing a system caused by design or implementation decisions that constrain its evolution. It can arise from deliberate shortcuts, limited knowledge or changes that make an earlier solution unsuitable
What it means, how it is used and where it comes up, with its related concepts.
What it is and how it works
It may appear as extra effort, hard-to-change dependencies or a higher risk of errors. Old code and individual defects are not automatically technical debt. Managing it requires describing the constraint, its effects and the options for addressing it. Priority should reflect its impact on meaningful business work, rather than a preference for newer technology.
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Frequently asked questions about Technical debt
Every website improvement takes longer and needs more effort. Do we need to rebuild it?
Rising effort warrants investigation, but it does not prove that a complete rebuild is necessary. Identify what constrains change: architecture, integrations, code quality, content or the decision process. Some limitations can be addressed incrementally; others affect essential capabilities. Compare targeted remediation, staged modernisation and replacement, including transition and continuity. A rebuild that leaves the underlying causes unresolved can reproduce the same problem in a new system.