All termsENGINEERING & ARCHITECTURE

Technical Debt

Also known as: Tech Debt

DEFINITION

The long-term cost of short-term engineering decisions — the interest you pay every time shortcuts compound.

In depth

Not all technical debt is bad. Strategic debt (shortcuts taken consciously to ship faster, with a plan to fix) is a tool. Accidental debt (shortcuts taken without realising) is the killer.

Track technical debt explicitly. A monthly "debt register" in your engineering planning doc (same way finance tracks financial debt) prevents silent accumulation.

Related terms

System Architecture

The high-level structure of a software system — its major components, their responsibilities, and how they communicate.

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Last reviewed 14 April 2026 by Abhi Verma.