How much resource to allocate for cleaning up tech debt?

Tech debt accumulates over time when teams prioritize rapid feature development over refactoring and maintenance. Developers resort to quick fixes to integrate new functionality into existing code, and these shortcuts persist if they work initially.

Eventually, the accumulated technical debt becomes so substantial that it impedes further development. It's like a Lego Empire Building that has too few logical and wholesome design, but has been built by squeezing new bricks into any space.

The Core Dilemma

Teams face a critical choice: pause development to address tech debt or continue building new features despite the mounting technical burden. When external pressures exist — whether from economic conditions, market competition, or management — organizations typically opt to continue feature development since new things generate new impact, while cleaning up tech debts only leave a blank period that you cannot describe as "multiply metric A by B%."

Long-term Consequences

However, unaddressed tech debt doesn't vanish independently. Continued accumulation eventually consumes all available development capacity and makes remediation increasingly risky and difficult.

The Solution

You need to allocate resource (time, people) for cleaning up tech debt, or even better, set up good rules to limit the generation of tech debt.