I have found that the sort of "technical debt" that effects customers has another word for it, a bug. Those issues tend to get prioritized quickly. The other ki

I have found that the sort of "technical debt" that effects customers has another word for it, a bug. Those issues tend to get prioritized quickly. The other kind of technical debt, that has you working nights and weekends because the system falls over in a light breeze doesn't have a special name. I consider "the system is relatively stable" as a implicit requirement of anything you build, if that requirement isn't hit, it simply isn't done. It probably should go back to the team that failed to finish the work, and the PM involved shouldn't get kudos for it's completion as it isn't completed. I think a lot of the problems with software dev could be resolved by being more honest with ourselves.