How Do You Effectively Manage Technical Debt in Your Infrastructure?
Technical debt in infrastructure can quickly become a significant burden for organizations. This article explores effective strategies for managing and reducing technical debt, drawing on insights from industry experts. Learn how allocating time, proactive prevention, and immediate problem-solving can help maintain a healthy and efficient infrastructure.
- Allocate Time for Technical Debt Management
- Proactively Prevent and Strategically Repay Debt
- Fix Problems Immediately to Ensure Quality
Allocate Time for Technical Debt Management
Over my two decades of experience, I have learned to treat technical debt as an essential part of the engineering deliverable, not as an afterthought. As part of my yearly planning, I deliberately allocate around 20% of engineering bandwidth to addressing technical debt and optimizing critical flows. This consistent investment ensures debt does not compound over time and helps us sustain long-term velocity.
I strongly believe that every line of code carries a maintenance cost. If left unmanaged, technical debt amplifies that cost, slowing teams down and increasing risk. By proactively dedicating capacity, we reduce future maintenance burdens, extend the life of core platforms, and avoid the inefficiency of having teams tied up maintaining end-of-life applications. This approach has proven to be the single most effective strategy in keeping infrastructure healthy, predictable, and resilient while still delivering business value.
Proactively Prevent and Strategically Repay Debt
As CTO, I view managing technical debt not as a cleanup chore, but as a core part of our strategic risk and resource management. While allocating a percentage of our time—say, 10%—to refactoring is a common tactic, a mature approach goes much deeper, focusing on proactive prevention and targeted repayment.
Make Debt Visible and Quantifiable
First, you can't manage what you don't measure. We treat technical debt like a financial liability on a balance sheet. We use a combination of static code analysis tools, tracking code complexity, identifying outdated dependencies, and creating a formal "debt registry." Each item in the registry is tagged with its potential impact—Is it slowing down feature development? Does it pose a security risk? Is it impacting system performance? This makes the abstract concept of "debt" concrete and allows us to discuss it in business terms.
This is where the real leverage is. The cheapest debt to fix is the debt you never create. Foundational to this is our strict, automated patching schedule for all dependencies and systems, as unpatched vulnerabilities are one of the most dangerous forms of technical debt. We also enforce Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for configuration management to prevent drift and ensure our environments are reproducible and consistent, which eliminates a massive source of operational debt. Beyond that, we have a lightweight architectural review process to prevent decisions that would paint us into a corner years from now. Finally, our definition of "done" for any task includes adequate testing, documentation, and adherence to our established coding standards. Cutting these corners is how debt starts, so we simply don't allow it.
We don't just give teams a flat "10% tax" to work on whatever they want. We manage our debt registry like a product backlog and explicitly pull in debt-related items alongside new features during planning. The prioritization is driven entirely by impact. We always address high-risk debt, like security vulnerabilities and stability issues, first. Next, we target "interest rate" debt in areas of the codebase where we are actively developing, as paying this down immediately accelerates new feature delivery. Some debt, however, is fine. If a piece of ugly code is in a part of the system that rarely changes and works reliably, we consciously choose to leave it alone. There's no value in refactoring for the sake of elegance.
Fix Problems Immediately to Ensure Quality
I don't "manage technical debt." I just try to ensure I don't leave sloppy work in the first place. For a small business, "technical debt" is simply a fancy way of saying you cut a corner and now you have a bigger problem. The "radical approach" is a simple, human one.
The process I had to completely reimagine was how I looked at a job. For a long time, I was rushing to get the work done as fast as possible. I'd leave a wire a little loose, a connection not perfectly sealed. It saved me time then, but it always cost me later. It was a complete mess. I realized such a radical approach was necessary when I started getting calls to fix my own jobs. I knew I had to change things completely. I had to shift my approach from being a tradesman who does a fast job to a professional who does a quality job.
The single most effective strategy for preventing accumulated problems is to fix them now. That means if you see a problem, you don't wait until the end of the day or the next week to fix it. You fix it right then and there. A loose wire might seem harmless, but it can lead to a fire. You can't put a Band-Aid on a problem and hope for the best. You have to fix the root of the issue. That's the most effective way to prevent accumulated problems.
The impact is on the business's culture and reputation. By doing the work right the first time, I've built a team that I can trust. This has led to better work, fewer mistakes, and a stronger reputation. A client who sees that I do things the right way from the beginning is more likely to trust me, and that's the most valuable thing you can have in this business.
My advice is simple: don't try to outrun a problem. A job done right is a job you don't have to go back to. Don't look for corporate gimmicks and start focusing on the simple, practical details. That's the most effective way to "manage technical debt" and build a business that will last.
