In software development and other information technology fields, technical debt (also known as design debt[1] or code debt) is the implied cost of future reworking required when choosing an easy but limited solution instead of a better approach that could take more time.[2]
Analogous with monetary debt,[3] if technical debt is not repaid, it can accumulate "interest", making it harder to implement changes. Unaddressed technical debt increases software entropy and cost of further rework. Similarly to monetary debt, technical debt is not necessarily a bad thing, and sometimes (e.g. as a proof-of-concept) is required to move projects forward. On the other hand, some experts claim that the "technical debt" metaphor tends to minimize the ramifications, which results in insufficient prioritization of the necessary work to correct it.[4][5]
As a change is started on a codebase, there is often the need to make other coordinated changes in other parts of the codebase or documentation. Changes required that are not completed are considered debt, and until paid, will incur interest on top of interest, making it cumbersome to build a project. Although the term is primarily used in software development, it can also be applied to other professions.
In a Dagstuhl seminar held in 2016, technical debt was defined by academic and industrial experts of the topic as follows: "In software-intensive systems, technical debt is a collection of design or implementation constructs that are expedient in the short term, but set up a technical context that can make future changes more costly or impossible. Technical debt presents an actual or contingent liability whose impact is limited to internal system qualities, primarily maintainability and evolvability."[6]
^Suryanarayana, Girish (November 2014). Refactoring for Software Design Smells (1st ed.). Morgan Kaufmann. p. 258. ISBN 978-0128013977.
^"Definition of the term "Technical Debt" (plus, some background information and an "explanation")". Techopedia. Retrieved August 11, 2016.
^Allman, Eric (May 2012). "Managing Technical Debt". Communications of the ACM. 55 (5): 50–55. doi:10.1145/2160718.2160733. S2CID 53246391.
^Jeffries, Ron. "Technical Debt – Bad metaphor or worst metaphor?". Archived from the original on November 11, 2015. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
^Knesek, Doug. "Averting a 'Technical Debt' Crisis". Retrieved April 7, 2016.
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