> ...because you can’t define it with any precision no matter how hard you try. For my clients, when we discuss "tech debt", I give it to them in concrete term

> ...because you can’t define it with any precision no matter how hard you try. For my clients, when we discuss "tech debt", I give it to them in concrete terms. "You want Capability A at Month 3, but in order to pull that off, you're going to have to give on Requirement 1 and Expectations Lambda, and it will cost us Y months of implementation in Q4 instead of Y-2 months, will that work for the business?" "Sure." "So marked in the meeting notes, and filed under our Tech Debt Jira backlog Feature, we won't move forward with Capability A implementation until you send Sam when you need the technical debt paid off by, and we'll slot it in ahead of time, okay?" "No problem, we'll get it to you with more detailed requirements on Capability A next week, thanks!" Sure, when you don't track tech debt it is just sloppy work ("incompetence" is a little harsh, I tend to say the staff involved need more coaching and are possibly more junior than their roles require...bees, honey, and all that). It has served me well to get through to those managers who initially demand the impossible.