Mounting technical debt
What is it?
The team systematically prioritizes short-term delivery speed over code quality and architecture, taking shortcuts that generate problems, rework, and higher future costs.
Common symptoms (how does it manifest?)
- Frequent unexpected bugs and regressions.
- The team avoids refactoring or improving existing code.
- Adding new features becomes increasingly slow and complex.
- Little or no automated test coverage.
Impact and consequences (why is it a problem?)
- Maintenance costs skyrocket in the long term.
- Loss of agility: inability to respond quickly to changes.
- Frustration and demotivation of the development team.
- Increased risk of critical failures in production.
Frequent root causes (why does it happen?)
- Excessive pressure to deliver quickly ("quick and dirty").
- Lack of a Definition of Done that includes technical quality.
- Lack of knowledge or skills in quality practices (TDD, refactoring).
- Poor or inadequate software architecture.