The cash value of technical debt - How to scare your boss into doing the right thing by Jules May

Technical debt compounds over time and acts like a tax on development - every code change introduces some amount of debt unavoidably

Once velocity drops below 50% of initial velocity (V0), the project becomes extremely difficult to recover as debt accumulates faster than it can be removed

At ~13% friction/technical debt rate, cleanup time becomes infinite - projects cannot recover past this threshold

Small reductions in technical debt friction (even 0.5%) can have major impacts on project health and delivery capability

Regular refactoring (every ~10 weeks) helps keep technical debt manageable compared to letting it accumulate

Software should be viewed as a liability rather than an asset - it requires ongoing maintenance and has associated costs

Technical debt can be measured by comparing:

• Feature code vs bug fixes
• Current velocity vs initial velocity (V0)
• Code changes over time
• Development friction metrics

The “gearing ratio” (debt-to-value ratio) indicates project health - keeping it below 5% is ideal

At 10% weekly friction rate, the annualized interest rate on technical debt is approximately 20,000%

Making the business case for addressing technical debt requires translating it into financial terms that management understands rather than using technical language