Metaphors hide and highlight. Sure there’s things “tech debt” doesn’t cover but there’s a lot that it does, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. One area is when a deve

Metaphors hide and highlight. Sure there’s things “tech debt” doesn’t cover but there’s a lot that it does, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. One area is when a developer can deliver something to the business quickly by amassing large amounts of debt. The developer gets patted on the back, maybe a raise or a promotion, then leaves. That debt is then paid off by future generations. Tech debt doesn’t necessarily means the design doesn’t work. The design could be functional for the business needs at the time developer but hard to change when future requirements are needed. Poor variable names, spaghetti code, hard coded values, etc. are often “cosmetic”. Fixing that stuff doesn’t really change the overall design but the rewards pay dividends when a new developer needs to understand and update the system.