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Playbook · Change · 6 steps
Making the case to pay down technical debt
Nobody funds a clean-up. They fund faster delivery and lower risk.
“The extra effort that it takes to add new features is the interest paid on the debt.”
- 1Technical Debt QuadrantWhich debt was deliberate and prudent, and which was reckless or accidental?Classify debt as deliberate or inadvertent, and prudent or reckless; each needs a different response.Open
- 2Technical Debt as InterestWhere are we paying the most interest, in slower changes and more incidents?Shortcuts are loans: they buy speed today and charge interest on every future change.Open
- 3Design Stamina HypothesisHave we passed the point where poor design costs more than it saved?Good internal design slows you briefly; past the payoff line it is what keeps you fast.Open
- 4Cost of DelayWhat does waiting another quarter cost the business, in money or risk?Quantify what it costs not to have something yet, then prioritise by value lost per unit of time.Open
- 5Make the Change Easy, Then Make the Easy ChangeCan we tie each clean-up to a feature it makes easier, instead of a separate project?When a change is hard, first reshape the system so the change becomes easy.Open
- 6Economies of SpeedFrame the outcome as how much faster we can learn and change.Digital organisations win by how quickly they can learn and change, not by how big they are.Open