General
technical debt
What does technical debt mean?
The accumulated cost of shortcuts and hasty code that will need reworking later.
"We shipped fast but racked up a lot of technical debt."
Origin
Coined by Ward Cunningham in 1992.
Frequently asked questions
What is technical debt?
It's the accumulated future cost of taking shortcuts or writing hasty code now, which will need reworking later, like interest on a loan.
Who coined the term?
Programmer Ward Cunningham coined it in 1992 as a metaphor comparing rushed code to financial debt.
Is all technical debt bad?
No. Taking on some debt deliberately to ship faster can be a reasonable trade-off, as long as it's tracked and eventually paid down.
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