💡 Technical Debt — A Heavy Term for a Simple Truth

 In a recent leadership meeting, the topic of technical debt came up repeatedly. At first, it sounded heavy — like something buried deep in code or system architecture. But as the discussion unfolded, I realized that technical debt is actually about something very simple: trade-offs and communication.

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⏳ What Technical Debt Really Means

Technical debt occurs whenever we take shortcuts to move faster — skipping documentation, reusing older designs, or delaying testing. Think of it like borrowing time today, knowing we’ll have to “pay it back” later.

• Deliberate technical debt is intentional: everyone knows the trade-off, documents it, and plans to resolve it later.

• Inadvertent (or inferred) technical debt happens accidentally, often due to miscommunication, unclear requirements, or lack of information.

In safety-critical industries like aviation, some debts may be minor, affecting only efficiency or maintainability. Others can affect safety, reliability, or regulatory compliance. That’s why it’s critical for engineering teams to quantify and communicate the risks, so leadership can make informed, deliberate decisions.

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🧠 A Real-World Software Example

Technical debt doesn’t always live in code. Sometimes, it’s organizational.

I experienced this in a software project spanning teams in India, Brazil, and the U.S.

• The Brazilian team had read-only access to review code from the Indian team. They didn’t write code — they simply identified issues during testing and pointed them out. Their goal: help the project move faster.

• However, this collaboration was misunderstood. Some perceived it as criticism or a job threat. As a result, GitHub access was revoked for everyone — including U.S. engineers who were not involved.

When we asked why, the response was:

“Company protocol does not allow engineers to write code or criticize developers.”

Except we weren’t writing code or criticizing — we were testing and flagging issues.

The consequence? Slower progress, less visibility, and reduced collaboration.
This is what I call organizational technical debt — when process, communication, or cultural friction creates inefficiencies that outlive the original problem.

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✈️ Technical Debt and Safety

In aviation, technical debt isn’t just about speed or cost. It can directly impact system reliability, safety margins, and FAA certification.

Engineering teams are responsible for surfacing debt and its implications:

• Which debts affect critical systems?

• Which ones can wait?

• What is the potential impact if left unresolved?

Leadership then decides deliberately which debts to carry and which to address immediately. This alignment between engineering truth and business priorities is essential to avoid surprises.

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💬 Reflections

Technical debt is often treated as a heavy, abstract topic for leadership discussions. But at its core, it’s simple:

• It’s about being transparent about trade-offs.

• It’s about enabling informed decisions rather than hiding shortcuts.

• And sometimes, it’s about fixing organizational processes, not just code.

Technical debt is a great topic for leadership conversations — but do we truly believe in it?

Because the term might sound heavy, but the idea is straightforward:

Identify trade-offs, communicate risks, and manage them before they turn into bigger problems.