The term “technical debt” is often misunderstood, but addressing technical debt is key for organizations that want to get the most out of technology. According to McKinsey, technical debt accounts for 40% of IT balance sheets, and some CIOs believe that more than 20% of the budget dedicated to new products is diverted to resolving issues related to tech debt. That’s why it’s essential to understand what it is, why it happens, and how to manage it effectively.
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Want to transform technical debt? Start by rethinking it
Don’t let it hold back your organization’s ability to innovate
Technical debt happens when organizations make technology decisions that cause deficiencies or risks to accumulate over time. All code incurs technical debt, because developers need to spend time and effort to ensure that existing features operate as expected over time. This maintenance varies depending on the age of the application and the tools and practices used to build it. Ultimately, technical debt is unavoidable, particularly given how rapidly the IT industry and a business evolves.
That said, organizations can avoid technical debt and reduce it by approaching it as an opportunity for continuous improvement. Technical debt is not only a technology issue — it also impacts the business’s bottom line as time spent maintaining code takes away from time that could be spent on innovation. That means that it’s critical for technology and business leaders to align on how they will acknowledge, plan for, and address technical debt together.
“[Technical debt is] a business and IT issue, so we need to look at it jointly,” says Siraj Gadne, senior leader for the customer solutions management team at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Business and technology leaders should work together to approach technical debt proactively. “Make use of the best and most modern technology to address it and constantly train to adopt newer technologies and implement them,” he says.
While transforming technical debt may seem like a constant challenge, the process can be made easier by adopting cloud technology. With the cloud, it’s easier to reduce, remediate, and even reverse tech debt.
Watch the video above to gain a better understanding of technical debt and how AWS cloud infrastructure and modern application practices can help you transform technical debt into technical wealth.