Communicate with Stakeholders to explain how the tech debts are impacting the product and eventually leading to depleting ROI due to delays. Sometimes you do not have leverage to do a massive overhaul, hence work out an incremental approach where the team tackles key areas of debt in parallel with new feature development. That way you are able to balance business needs with ensuring you are continuing to pay the tech debts. What is very important is to foster a culture where developers actively avoid accumulating technical debt in the future. This will mean writing cleaner code, reviewing and refactoring as part of the any development. Keep in mind the "Boy Scout rule"

When addressing technical debt, I start with a comprehensive audit to evaluate its impact on project timelines and quality. I then work with the team to prioritize the debt that requires immediate attention compared to those improvements that can be deferred. I negotiate realistic timelines with stakeholders by clearly outlining the trade-offs—how addressing technical debt will help prevent future bottlenecks, enhance stability, and reduce long-term costs. By balancing short-term delivery with long-term maintainability, I ensure alignment and effectively manage expectations.

A practical strategy for managing technical debt involves prioritizing and communicating effectively. First, assess and rank technical debt issues based on their impact on functionality and user experience, focusing on high-risk areas. Then, communicate these priorities clearly with stakeholders, emphasizing the long-term cost of neglecting technical debt. Establishing phased timelines, breaking tasks into smaller, manageable segments, and dedicating sprints or milestones specifically for technical debt reduction can also help balance immediate project needs with long-term maintainability.

One thing I have always found useful in tackling tech debt is the concept of "error budget". It's always a tussle getting business to approve changes for tech refactoring which is key for tech debt reduction but since it may not be perceived to have direct business impact, business is never keen to make those changes. However if you can agree on specific SLIs and SLOs with your business, you can then control the pace of change by tracking your error budgets. It's a very smart way of managing tech debt while giving your business the confidence in terms of managing overall uptime of your systems.

1. Establish Debt Thresholds: Set limits on acceptable technical debt and review regularly to prevent unnoticed growth. 2. Prioritize Debt Reduction in Sprints: Allocate part of each sprint for addressing debt, balancing it with new feature development. 3. Automate Testing and Code Reviews: Integrate automated testing and refactoring to catch debt early and maintain cleaner code. 4. Track and Measure Debt: Use tracking tools for metrics like code complexity, strengthening your case in timeline discussions. 5. Involve the Team: Encourage team members to flag productivity issues caused by debt. 6. Continuous Education: Provide regular workshops on best practices for sustainable code.