In practice
The symptom is not ugly code; it is a fall in the rate of change. Small features start taking weeks, estimates lose their meaning and the same area keeps breaking. The fix is to make it visible: a short register of known compromises, what each one costs, and what it would take to clear it, reviewed alongside the feature list rather than separately.
Where it fits in a build
Every system carries some. The question a buyer should ask a supplier is not whether there is any, but whether they can show you the list.
Common mistakes
- Treating a rewrite as the remedy, when the same pressures will produce the same result.
- Letting dependencies age until an upgrade is a project of its own.
- No tests, which converts every change into a risk and makes paying the debt down unaffordable.
Related terms
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