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In software development, introducing incomplete designs that require later revisions in order to prioritize development speed is referred to as technical debt. While balancing quality and schedule, technical debt can hinder smooth development.
“I want to know more about technical debt.”
“I want to understand the causes of technical debt and how to resolve it.”
This article explains the overview and types of technical debt for those who have such concerns. We’ll also cover the causes and how to resolve technical debt, so please use it as a reference.
Akira Shimazoe
CEO of Solashi Japan LLC. Engaged in the development and operation of internal systems at Suntory. Founded Yper Inc., serving as CTO and CPO, contributing to product launch and growth.
What is Technical Debt?
Technical debt refers to the potential future costs in software development for modifications or improvements that may be needed later. This primarily arises when engineers prioritize deadlines over quality and choose suboptimal code or design solutions.
As technical debt accumulates, it can lead to additional modification costs in the future or a decline in system quality and maintainability. Therefore, development teams need to resolve technical debt systematically.
As both quality and speed are required in software development, managing technical debt has become a critical issue.
Origin of Technical Debt
The concept of technical debt was introduced in 1992 by software developer Ward Cunningham, who is also known as the inventor of the wiki. He coined the term to help non-engineering stakeholders understand the importance of refactoring. Refactoring refers to restructuring internal code without changing its external behavior.
Cunningham explained technical debt using a financial debt analogy. In other words, rushing software development for short-term gains will require "repayment" later on. This repayment refers to the improvements or optimizations that need to be made to the codebase at a later stage.
This concept serves as an important guideline for balancing short-term benefits with long-term viability in software development.
Examples of Technical Debt
Technical debt can appear in various forms. Below is a summary of common types of technical debt and their specific examples.
| Type of Technical Debt | Examples |
| Code Quality | ・Spaghetti code (complex and unstructured code) ・Low readability due to inconsistent variable or class names ・Strong dependencies between modules |
| Operations | ・Lack of DevOps or DevSecOps adoption ・Insufficient automation for code checks and deployment ・Low work quality |
| Architecture | ・Difficulty adopting new technologies due to use of outdated ones ・Low system performance ・Increased cost for adding or modifying features |
| Other | ・Lack of documentation for materials or rules ・Vague documentation ・Unrecorded discussion content ・Increased time required for confirmation and meetings |
As shown above, technical debt can occur at various stages of the development process. If not properly managed, it can negatively affect project efficiency and quality in the long term.
Impacts of Technical Debt
The accumulation of technical debt can have a significant negative impact on software development projects. Here are four major effects:
- Decreased productivity
- Decreased quality
- Increased development costs
- Lower customer satisfaction
These impacts are interrelated and can become factors that threaten the success of a project. It is important to understand each impact in detail and take appropriate measures.
Decreased Productivity
As technical debt increases, development team productivity significantly drops. In systems with accumulated debt, even simple changes become complex tasks, requiring extensive time for modification. As a result, developers spend more time understanding and fixing existing code rather than implementing new features. This reduces the time available for essential development tasks, ultimately delaying the entire project.
Additionally, increased code complexity makes team communication and knowledge sharing more difficult. This hinders onboarding of new members and knowledge transfer, which in turn leads to a decline in productivity.
Decreased Quality
The accumulation of technical debt reduces system quality and reliability. Systems with high debt levels tend to have more bugs and errors, which are harder to detect and fix. In such situations, adding new features or improving existing ones becomes difficult, hindering product evolution.
Poor-quality systems significantly impair the user experience and can damage the reputation of the product or service.
Increased Development Costs
When technical debt increases, it becomes necessary to fix and refactor code, which ultimately leads to higher development costs. In addition, working on a complex system tends to cause unexpected problems, and additional fixes or responses may often be required. Labor costs and opportunity losses associated with these tasks can significantly exceed the initial budget.
Furthermore, if technical debt slows down the development of new features, opportunity losses due to delayed market release may also occur. In the long term, the increase in these costs can squeeze corporate profitability and lead to reduced competitiveness.
Decline in Customer Satisfaction
The impact of technical debt ultimately leads to a decrease in customer satisfaction. Systems burdened with debt often suffer from frequent bugs, unstable operation, and performance degradation. These directly damage the user experience and erode trust in the product or service.
Especially in highly competitive markets, such problems can lead to customer churn or migration to competing services. As a result, this can severely affect the business as a whole, including reduced sales, loss of market share, and damage to brand value.
Types of Technical Debt
Technical debt can generally be categorized into the following three types:
- Deliberate Technical Debt
- Unintentional Technical Debt
- Inevitable Technical Debt
Let's explore each type in detail.
Deliberate Technical Debt
Deliberate technical debt is consciously chosen as part of a business strategy. It is mainly aimed at capturing market share or securing competitive advantage by releasing products early. In this case, companies temporarily accept imperfect code or design with the premise of future improvements.
While this strategy enables rapid market entry, it is also necessary to consider future revision costs and potential risks.
Unintentional Technical Debt
Unintentional technical debt refers to technical debt that arises without the intention of the development team or engineers. The main causes include lack of technical skills, design mistakes, unplanned changes, or accidental errors.
This type of debt is often difficult to notice and address. Once accumulated, it can reduce the maintainability and scalability of the system, ultimately leading to increased operational costs over the long term.
Inevitable Technical Debt
Inevitable technical debt is caused by the evolution of technology or changes in the business environment. For example, the end of support for existing technologies or the need to meet new market demands fall into this category.
Although it is difficult to predict at the time of development, resolving this type of debt leads to the adoption of the latest technologies and adaptation to market changes. By creating regular technology update plans, the impact can be minimized.
Main Causes of Technical Debt
Technical debt can occur at various stages of the software development process. The main causes include the following:
- Complex code
- Insufficient testing
- Outdated systems or technologies
- Lack of technical skills among IT personnel
These issues are common challenges faced by many companies. If not properly addressed, they can lead to reduced development efficiency, degraded product quality, and even the loss of business opportunities in the long term.
Let’s now take a closer look at each of these causes.
Complex Code
Excessive code complexity is one of the main causes of technical debt. Complex code refers to code that has a convoluted structure, is difficult for others to understand, and is hard to maintain. Examples include the following:
- Contains many duplicated or unused processes
- Unclear variable names and overly nested conditional branches
- Lack of consistency in naming conventions or indentation
Such complex code tends to be less readable and makes modifications, feature expansions, and maintenance more difficult. Especially if documentation like specifications or manuals is lacking, there’s a risk that the code becomes a black box.
Insufficient Testing
Technical debt can also easily accumulate when testing is insufficient. If software is released under such conditions, unexpected problems may occur after the release. For example, the team may have to deal with additional fixes or bug responses post-launch.
Skipping or rushing through the testing phase may save time in the short term. However, in the long term, it can negatively affect the overall progress of the project and ultimately result in greater time and cost burdens.
Outdated Systems and Technologies
Continuing to use outdated systems and technologies is also a major cause of technical debt. These systems often cannot meet modern industry standards or security requirements, leading to decreased overall system performance and increased security risks. Moreover, outdated technologies may no longer be supported, making problem-solving difficult when issues arise.
These issues can result in reduced development efficiency over time and may also cause unexpected system failures.
Lack of Technical Skills in IT Personnel
Another cause of technical debt is a lack of technical skills among engineers. Less experienced engineers may lack sufficient knowledge of modern technologies or system architecture, often relying on stopgap solutions.
These temporary fixes frequently result in incomplete code or flawed designs, which often require correction or improvement in the future. Additionally, lacking technical skills makes it difficult to choose the right solution for complex problems or to make design decisions from a long-term perspective. As a result, system maintainability and scalability are reduced, and technical debt accumulates.
As you can see, there are various main causes of technical debt. If you’re struggling with these issues, let Solashi Co., Ltd help. Leveraging our base in Vietnam — where living costs are lower and IT talent is abundant — we offer high-quality services at competitive prices. We’ll listen to your situation and propose optimal solutions, so feel free to contact us.
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The Four Quadrants of Technical Debt
Technical debt can be classified into four quadrants based on its nature and causes. This is known as the "Four Quadrants of Technical Debt," consisting of reckless, prudent, deliberate, and inadvertent elements.
This classification helps in understanding the characteristics of each type of debt and enables the implementation of appropriate measures. Let's explain each one in turn.
Prudent & Deliberate
Prudent and deliberate technical debt is chosen by the development team after carefully considering the current situation and long-term impact. In this case, the team intentionally decides to incur technical debt. For example, the following cases apply:
- Initially supporting only credit card payments on an e-commerce site, with plans to add other payment methods after release.
- Temporarily releasing unoptimized code during the development of a new feature, followed by refactoring in a later sprint.
This type of debt is characterized by a clear recognition of its existence by the team and is usually incurred to meet release deadlines or based on plans for gradual design improvements.
Reckless & Deliberate
Reckless and deliberate technical debt occurs when speed or short-term benefits are prioritized, and technical compromises are knowingly made despite future problems. In this case, the team is aware of proper design methods but intentionally ignores them in favor of inefficient or incomplete implementations.
This type of debt often arises when rapid market entry is required. In highly competitive markets, gaining a first-mover advantage is crucial. However, this approach often proceeds without a full understanding of the debt, leading to significant burdens later.
Prudent & Inadvertent
Prudent yet inadvertent technical debt refers to cases where the development team carefully designed the system and chose technologies, but technical debt still arises due to unforeseen factors.
This is mainly caused by external factors or unpredictable changes in circumstances. For example, sudden changes in business requirements or the rapid emergence of new technologies may necessitate a reassessment of existing system functions, performance, and scalability.
Because this type of debt arises despite careful planning by the team, it can be difficult to address and may require significant system modifications or redesign.
Reckless & Inadvertent
Reckless and inadvertent technical debt arises when the development team proceeds without sufficient knowledge or planning, resulting in the accumulation of technical debt. Without a proper understanding of technical challenges and risks, the team proceeds haphazardly and ends up with significant debt in the future.
This is often due to inexperience or poor decisions and is characterized by the need for large-scale fixes or refactoring. For example, adopting a new framework without sufficient understanding and making many implementation mistakes would fall into this category.
Key Points for Eliminating Technical Debt
Here are some key points for effectively eliminating technical debt. By appropriately combining and implementing these points according to the situation, you can expect improved development efficiency, product quality, and team productivity.
- Classify debt into "good debt" and "bad debt"
- Prioritize debt
- Tackle debt elimination as a whole team
- Set metrics to measure the effectiveness of debt elimination
- Establish a continuous improvement process
- Promote technical skill development and knowledge sharing
However, due to a lack of human resources or know-how, it may not always be possible to implement these measures. In such cases, consulting with companies that offer professional services can be an effective option. These companies can propose appropriate solutions based on their extensive experience.
Our company, "Solashi Co., Ltd," is an offshore development company based in Vietnam. Taking advantage of Vietnam's abundance of IT talent and low cost of living, we offer high-quality services at competitive prices. We can propose optimal solutions based on your situation, so please feel free to contact us.
Classify into "Good Debt" and "Bad Debt"
To organize the technical debt you are dealing with, classify it into "good debt" and "bad debt." Good debt is intentionally incurred based on business strategy and accepted with the expectation of future benefits. In contrast, bad debt arises from carelessness or lack of knowledge and is undesirable.
By classifying debt in this way, you can clearly understand the nature and impact of each type and identify what should be addressed as a priority. Generally, bad debt should be resolved first due to its unpredictable consequences. Regularly reviewing and updating this classification allows for more effective debt management.
Prioritize Debt
Assign priorities to the classified debts. Place serious issues affecting system stability, security, or business impact at the top.
Prioritizing helps to use limited resources effectively and achieve the greatest impact.
Tackle Debt Elimination as a Whole Team
Position the elimination of technical debt as a responsibility of the entire team. It is important that everyone, not just certain developers, actively participates. Through regular code reviews and pair programming, the team works together to improve code quality.
By ensuring all team members understand the importance of debt elimination and stay mindful of it in daily development, long-term and sustainable improvements can be achieved.
Set Metrics to Measure the Effectiveness of Debt Elimination
To objectively evaluate the effectiveness of eliminating technical debt, it is important to set appropriate metrics. Useful metrics include code complexity, test coverage, bug occurrence rate, application performance, and development speed.
By regularly measuring these indicators and visualizing progress, you can confirm the effectiveness of your efforts.
Establish a Continuous Improvement Process
It is important to treat the elimination of technical debt not as a one-time effort but as an ongoing improvement process. Integrate debt elimination tasks into your daily development processes.
For example, refactor code in parallel with developing new features, or set aside regular time to address debt. This continuous approach prevents the accumulation of new debt while gradually eliminating existing debt. By maintaining a long-term perspective, you can build a sustainable development environment.
Promote Technical Skill Development and Knowledge Sharing
To effectively eliminate and prevent technical debt, improving the technical skills of team members and promoting knowledge sharing are essential. Hold regular study sessions or training to learn about the latest technologies and effective development practices.
Also, actively encourage the sharing of best practices and lessons learned within the team. This helps to foster a culture and knowledge base for preventing technical debt. By cultivating a culture of continuous learning and growth, you can improve the quality and efficiency of your projects in the long run and minimize the accumulation of technical debt.
If You Are Struggling with Technical Debt, Contact “Solashi”
This article has explained the overview, types, causes, and solutions for technical debt. Leaving technical debt unresolved can lead to reduced development efficiency, product quality degradation, and ultimately lower customer satisfaction. Therefore, proper action is essential.
If you are facing challenges with technical debt, feel free to consult with "Solashi Co., Ltd." We are an offshore development company based in Vietnam. By leveraging Vietnam’s abundance of IT talent and low living costs, we provide high-quality services at competitive prices.
At Solashi, we offer the following services to prevent and eliminate technical debt:
- Code refactoring
- CI/CD pipeline setup
- Technology stack modernization
- Documentation creation and maintenance
- Architecture redesign
- Consulting and advice for eliminating technical debt
Through these services, we support our clients in resolving technical debt issues. Please feel free to contact us—our experienced professionals will propose the most suitable solution for your challenges.
Akira Shimazoe
Representative of Solashi Japan LLC. Born in April 1989 in Fukuoka Prefecture. Graduated from the Graduate School of Information and Mathematical Sciences at Osaka Prefecture University. Joined Suntory System Technology Co., Ltd., an IT subsidiary of Suntory Holdings, in 2014. Broadly responsible for the development, operation, and implementation of vending machine delivery management, efficiency improvements, and sales management systems. Founded Yper Inc. in 2017, serving as CTO and CPO. Contributed to the launch and growth of the app-linked delivery bag "OKIPPA." Selected for Toyo Keizai's prestigious "Amazing Venture 100" and Forbes' "Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2019."
