Managing Tech Debt

Scope

Covers

• Identifying and making technical debt visible (including user-visible symptoms)
• Prioritizing debt work using a transparent scoring model
• Deciding refactor vs migrate vs rebuild vs deprecate with explicit criteria
• Planning incremental modernization (avoid “rewrite traps”)
• Building a business case for hard-to-measure investments (metrics + small tests)
• Creating an execution-ready paydown plan with risks, milestones, and comms

When to use

• “Create a tech debt register and prioritize what to fix next quarter.”
• “We’re considering a rewrite/migration—help us make the call and plan it safely.”
• “Our legacy system slows delivery—build a paydown plan with milestones and metrics.”
• “Leadership won’t fund refactors—quantify impact and propose a measurable plan.”