What Does Technical Debt Mean?
Technical debt is a concept in programming that reflects the extra development work that arises when code that is easy to implement in the short run is used instead of applying the best overall solution.
Techopedia Explains Technical Debt
The term was coined by Ward Cunningham, a programmer who is also known for developing the first wiki.Technical debt is a metaphor that equates software development to financial debt. Imagine that you have a project that has two potential options. One is quick and easy but will require modification in the future. The other has a better design, but will take more time to implement. In development, releasing code as a quick and easy approach is like incurring debt - it comes with the obligation of interest, which, for technical debt, comes in the form of extra work in the future. Taking the time to refactor is equivalent to paying down principal. While this takes time in the short run, it also decreases future interest payments.
