How to Know If a Team Has Stopped Creating Tech Debt

It’s one thing for a team to say, “We’re fixing our tech debt.” It’s another thing entirely for them to prove they’ve stopped creating more of it.

Because here’s the reality: Cleaning up old messes is meaningless if you’re still making new ones. A team that has truly matured beyond tech debt victimhood has clear, observable behaviors that set them apart.

Signs a Team Has Stopped Creating Tech Debt

? They Consume Defects Immediately—Without Slowing Down

• When a bug is found, it’s either fixed on the spot or addressed in the next sprint.
• There’s no backlog of “low-priority” defects piling up.
• They don’t let small problems become big ones.

? They Automate Everything They Can

• CI/CD pipelines run without manual intervention.
• Automated tests catch issues before they hit production.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) ensures consistency and eliminates “snowflake” environments.

? They Have Clear Coding Standards—And They Enforce Them

• Tools like Rubocop, ESLint, SonarQube, or Cyclomatic Complexity analyzers are integrated into the development process.
• No one merges a PR that introduces unnecessary complexity.
• Reviews focus on long-term maintainability, not just “does it work?”

? They Write Tests—and Actually Maintain Them

• Test coverage is high—but more importantly, the tests are meaningful.
• Flaky tests don’t exist because the team actively fixes them or removes them.
• Every bug gets a regression test to prevent it from happening again.

? They Think in Systems, Not Just Code

• They don’t just write code; they design for flexibility and scalability.
• They proactively identify and eliminate bottlenecks before they become major issues.
• They use observability tools (logs, metrics, tracing) to detect and fix issues before customers report them.

? They Treat Tech Debt Like Financial Debt

• If they take on intentional tech debt, they have a clear plan to pay it back.
• They don’t wait for tech debt to become unbearable before addressing it.
• Every sprint includes some level of refactoring or quality improvements.

Signs a Team Is Still Creating Tech Debt

?? They Have a Growing Backlog of Bugs

• Bugs linger for weeks or months because “we’re too busy.”
• They keep shipping new features without fixing existing issues.

?? They Need Special Time to “Fix Tech Debt”

• They regularly ask for “refactoring sprints” because they didn’t do it right the first time.
• Instead of baking quality into daily work, they treat it as an afterthought.

?? Their Code Gets More Complex Over Time, Not Simpler

• Every new feature adds complexity instead of simplifying the system.
• Dependencies are added without question, leading to unmanageable sprawl.

?? They Have No Guardrails

• No static analysis tools (e.g., Rubocop, SonarQube, linting).
• No automated tests that ensure stability.
• No code review standards to prevent bad patterns from creeping in.

?? They Blame the Past Instead of Owning the Future

• They spend more time complaining about old decisions than making better ones.
• They use past tech debt as an excuse to avoid moving forward.

How to Break Free From the Tech Debt Cycle

If a team is serious about stopping the cycle of tech debt victimhood, they need to shift from reactive cleanup to proactive prevention. Here’s how:

1. Fix As You Go—Not Later

• Refactoring and cleanup should be part of daily work, not a separate project.
• If you touch messy code, leave it better than you found it.
• If you need a dedicated “cleanup sprint,” you’ve already failed.

2. Build Guardrails That Force Better Decisions

• Implement static analysis tools (Rubocop, ESLint, SonarQube, etc.) to catch problems early.
• Enforce coding standards—every PR should improve maintainability, not degrade it.
• Use automated testing to prevent regressions.

3. Prioritize Bugs Like Features

• Stop letting small issues pile up.
• If a defect is found, fix it in the next sprint—or sooner.
• Teams that wait “until later” to fix problems never actually fix them.

4. Reduce Complexity at Every Opportunity

• Every new feature should simplify the system, not add unnecessary layers.
• Cut dependencies ruthlessly—only introduce what you truly need.
• Think in small, modular, reusable components.

5. Own the Tech Debt You Create

• If you introduce a shortcut, commit to paying it back.
• Don’t leave a mess for future engineers—because future engineers might be you.
• If you wouldn’t want to maintain this code in a year, don’t ship it.

The Bottom Line: Tech Debt Is a Habit—Good or Bad

A team that has truly broken free from the cycle of tech debt victimhood doesn’t just say they’re better—they prove it with every commit.

If you’re fixing yesterday’s mistakes but still making the same ones today, you’re not solving the problem—you’re just hitting reset.

The best teams don’t need permission to clean up tech debt—because they never create it in the first place.

originally posted at derekneighbors.com