The (Technical) Debt Snowball
Pay down technical debt without going bankrupt in the process.
One of the first lessons that you learn when getting into business is that there are two types of debt: Good debt and bad debt. Good debt can allow your company to expand, get ahead of your competition, and get paid off almost freely using the profits made by taking on the debt.
Bad debt sits on your books for years, sometimes accumulating interest at such an enormous rate that the total interest grows beyond the original debt. Bad debt will sink your business if you don’t handle it safely. Bad debt is the kind of debt that makes it hard to sleep at night.
Technical debt is no different. We’ll never avoid technical debt entirely, but we can prevent bad technical debt.
How to tell what kind of technical debt you have
The difference between good and bad technical debt is the same as a good and bad joke—timing and whether or not everyone is talking about it. If you’re asking yourself if the technical debt you have is good or bad technical debt, I can assure you it is almost certainly bad. The question is how bad.
To answer that, we ask yourself these questions:
- Is it clear why the debt is in place?
