Managing technical debt without halting delivery

Short summary

Technical debt is a rational tool, not a moral failing — the goal is managed debt, not zero debt. Make debt legible by filing tickets, leaving grep-able code signposts, and watching signals like rising bug rates. Pay it down incrementally by budgeting 15-20% of each cycle and applying the boy-scout rule, while framing the cost to stakeholders in terms of velocity and reliability rather than engineering hygiene.

• •Frame technical debt by interest rate: high-interest debt in hot paths gets paid now, low-interest debt in stable areas can wait
• •Make debt visible through tickets, code signposts, and signal monitoring rather than keeping it in senior engineers' heads
• •Budget 15-20% of every cycle for incremental debt repayment and translate debt costs into stakeholder language

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