Technical debt

Definition

Like a financial debt, the technical debt incurs interest payments, which come in the form of the extra effort that we have to do in future development because of the quick and dirty design choice. We can choose to continue paying the interest, or we can pay down the principal by refactoring the quick and dirty design into the better design. Although it costs to pay down the principal, we gain by reduced interest payments in the future. http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebt.html

Formula

Tags

debt, interest, design, payment

Metadata

Category: Software engineering · Added: May 17, 2026