Managing Technical Debt

"Technical Debt" refers to delayed technical work that is incurred when technical short cuts are taken, usually in pursuit of calendar-driven software schedules. Just like financial debt, some technical debts can serve valuable business purposes. Other technical debts are simply counterproductive. The ability to take on debt safely, track debt, manage their debt, and pay down their debt varies among different organizations. Steve McConnell, Chief Software Engineer/CEO for Construx Software, wrote this whitepaper to describe the two basic kinds of technical debt and important considerations when incurring, tracking, managing, and retiring debt.