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Technical Debt: Why is my software development getting slower?

January 16, 2025
By Calen Legaspi
Reading Time : 1
 minute
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Article

Technical Debt: Why is my software development getting slower?

January 16, 2025
By Calen Legaspi
Reading Time : 1
 minute

Have you ever been the new developer on a team, brought in mid-project or mid-sprint, only to find yourself struggling to navigate an overwhelmingly complex codebase? The code is tangled, and difficult to understand, and every change seems to create more problems than it solves. You might even feel like you’re drowning in complexity, making it nearly impossible to deliver the features you’ve been assigned. To make matters worse, you discover that the reason you’re here is that the team needed more hands to deal with the mess—a mess caused by the very thing no one wants to talk about—technical debt.

What is technical debt?

Technical debt is a metaphorical term that refers to the growing burden in software development when code becomes increasingly difficult to understand and modify. Just like financial debt, technical debt results from taking shortcuts in software quality and engineering practices. While these shortcuts may offer immediate benefits, they lead to significant costs later, requiring a substantial “interest” payment in the form of time, resources, and effort.

Imagine being in a hurry to enjoy life, borrowing money to travel or buying a nice car. Initially, you might enjoy a lavish lifestyle, but soon, the debt catches up with you, leaving you with a limited budget where you can only afford instant noodles. Similarly, in software development, rushing through the process by cutting corners can lead to a future filled with complications.

Accumulation of Debt

The accumulation of complexity

Technical debt manifests as an accumulation of complexity within the codebase. Consider a simple machine with two switches, each having two settings (on/off). There are only four possible scenarios to consider. 

Switch scenario Image 1

However, if the machine has three switches with three settings each, the number of scenarios jumps to 27. 

Switch scenario Image 2

Now, imagine a machine with five switches, each having five settings—the number of scenarios skyrockets to 3,125.

Switch scenario Image 3

In software engineering, this phenomenon is known as a “combinatorial explosion.” Each new component added to the software can interact with all existing components, exponentially increasing the complexity. Over time, this growing complexity creates challenges for development teams, slowing down their ability to add new features and fix bugs.

The impact of technical debt on development teams

Initially, a software development team’s capacity is dedicated to turning requirements into features. However, as technical debt accumulates, the team must also deal with code that’s increasingly difficult to understand and modify. This leads to slower progress, more bugs, and a reduced ability to develop new features. Eventually, technical debt can reach a point where the majority of the team’s capacity is consumed by managing the complexities of the existing codebase, leaving little room for innovation.

Technical Debt Process

How quickly does technical debt accumulate?

Technical Debt Graph

A real-world example illustrates this point. In a software development team, a chart tracked the creation and completion of tasks. During the first two weeks, the team was highly productive, closing tasks almost as soon as they were opened. However, after those initial weeks, the gap between tasks opened and closed widened significantly. This widening gap represents the accumulation of technical debt. Within just four months, the debt had grown so much that completing new tasks became a slow and arduous process.

The business implications of technical debt

Many businesses underestimate the true cost of building and maintaining software. They often believe the primary expense lies in the initial development and the introduction of the software. However, studies show that over 80% of software costs arise after the software is released—when it’s in the hands of users.

Maintenance Cost

Users continuously demand new features, market conditions change, and government regulations evolve. For example, in one banking project, a last-minute regulatory change required the addition of new features just before deployment. The bank had no choice but to comply, delaying the release and increasing costs.

If technical debt isn’t managed properly, the exponential growth in complexity can lead to skyrocketing maintenance costs, eventually surpassing the revenue generated by the software. This situation can turn a profitable product into a financial burden.

Managing technical debt with technical investments

To avoid the pitfalls of technical debt, companies need to implement standards, processes, and continuous training for their engineers. By making “technical investments“—a term that contrasts with technical debt—organizations can manage the inevitable growth of complexity. These investments involve dedicating more time, effort, and resources to defining and adhering to best practices in software engineering. While this requires upfront effort, the result is a more manageable complexity curve, ensuring that software products remain profitable and sustainable.

Conclusion

Technical debt may start as a series of small compromises, but it can quickly spiral into a significant burden that stifles innovation, slows development, and drains resources. As software developers, we’ve all experienced the frustration of working with overly complex code that’s difficult to understand and even harder to change. When left unchecked, technical debt doesn’t just impact the developers—it affects the entire organization, leading to costly delays, missed opportunities, and, ultimately, a loss in profitability.

However, by recognizing the signs of technical debt early and committing to technical investments, teams can prevent this debt from becoming unmanageable. Just as financial debt requires careful planning and disciplined repayment, technical debt requires a proactive approach, where quality engineering practices are prioritized, and complexity is kept in check. By doing so, we can build software that not only meets today’s needs but is also adaptable and sustainable for the future.

The cost of technical debt is real, but with the right strategies, it can be controlled. The key is to shift our mindset from quick wins to long-term stability, ensuring that our code remains clean, our processes remain efficient, and our teams remain productive.

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