Enterprise Technical Debt: Liability or Lever?

Much like financial leverage, tech debt leverage carries risks, and managing it becomes paramount. As with financial leverage, the problem with tech debt arises when it accumulates without making technological payments against that debt over time. As companies become more digital, they need to actively measure and manage their tech debt leverage the same way they do their financial debt leverage. To do this, it is imperative to know how to calculate it and have a common language for discussing it with the executive team and the board. Without both, tech debt is a pure liability that hampers innovation and delays transformative efforts within enterprises.

By proactively measuring and managing enterprise tech debt and establishing a common business language with which to contain that measurement, CIOs can elevate the discussion of tech debt within their organization. This concept enables tech debt to become another lever that can be pulled to help meet strategic goals while the prioritization of efforts to pay tech debt interest is consciously addressed by the executive team.

This Guide outlines the critical steps to turning technical debt into a lever for success:

• First, what is technical debt?
• Why technical debt leverage is important
• Why common language is such a powerful tool
• If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it!
• Key takeaways for technology leaders