9 Technical Debt Management Strategies
Technical debt is not going to reduce itself. Here are some popular strategies used by Scrum teams globally
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"We'll handle that technical debt in the next sprint."
If I had a dollar for every time I've heard this in my career, I could retire early. It's become the running joke in product teams - that imaginary "next sprint" when the team finally has time to clean up the code.
But here's what actually happens in that "next sprint":
Monday: New urgent feature request comes in
Tuesday: Production issue needs immediate attention
Wednesday: Stakeholder changes priorities
Thursday: Team realizes they're behind on sprint commitments
Friday: Technical debt gets pushed to... you guessed it... "next sprint"
I recently facilitated a workshop with the Product Owners of fifteen different Scrum teams. Every single one had the same story: They weren't struggling to identify technical debt—they were drowning in their ability to “manage it” alongside everything else.
One Product Owner put it perfectly:
"We're moving so slow because of technical debt, but we're moving too fast to fix it."
The real problem isn't identifying technical debt (most developers can spot it from miles away). The problem is knowing HOW TO MANAGE IT within an ongoing sprint with other high-stakes items.
If you wish to learn more about measuring technical debt, take a look at the post below that discusses it in detail:
As it was a growing issue for my teams, I took this opportunity to research how other teams around the world handle this situation. How do they balance the management of technical debt with different priorities?
Did I find an answer?
I did!
I found 9 different strategies that various teams around the globe are using to balance technical debt with their other responsibilities.
This post is a collection of those strategies.
Let’s get started.
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#1. The "Boy Scout Rule"
There is a popular camping rule I am pretty sure you’re aware of:
"Always leave the campsite cleaner than you found it"?
This rule works brilliantly for code, too:
“Leave the code cleaner than you found it.”
Simple? Yes. But incredibly powerful.
The act of leaving a mess in the code should be as socially unacceptable as littering.
Instead of planning massive cleanup sprints that never happen, this strategy suggests making tiny improvements every time you touch the code. You pick up one piece of trash each time you walk through the campsite rather than planning a massive annual cleanup that keeps getting postponed.
Here's how it works in practice:
When a developer needs to modify a piece of code to add a feature or fix a bug, they should:
First, complete their primary task
Then, make one small improvement to the code they touched
It could be as simple as:
renaming a confusing variable
adding a missing comment
breaking down a long method
removing duplicate code
The beauty of this approach? It's sustainable and realistic.
You're not asking your team to move mountains – just to leave things a little better than they found them.
Your team pays off the technical debt with small daily installments. The goal is to make one small improvement that takes 5-10 minutes at most.
These tiny actions compound over time.
And before you know it, your codebase is cleaner, healthier, and easier to maintain—all while delivering value to your stakeholders.
#2. Technical Debt Champion
This approach ensures technical debt gets the attention it deserves.
The concept is simple: 1 developer dedicates their time entirely to managing technical debt for the sprint. The rest of the team focuses on delivering features and other sprint goals.
Important: This role “rotates” every sprint.
Why rotate?
Because it keeps things fresh.
When the role rotates, everyone on the team gets a chance to contribute to improving the codebase. It also ensures shared ownership of the code and prevents the same developer from burning out on debt-related work.
Here’s how it works in practice:
Every sprint:
One developer steps away from feature development (unless, of course, they have an ongoing task they are working on)
They focus entirely on technical debt reduction
The role rotates to another team member next sprint
Simple? Yes. Effective? Absolutely.
Here's why this approach works so well:
Dedicated Focus: No context switching between features and cleanup. The champion can dive deep into debt reduction without interruption
Fresh Perspectives: As the role rotates, each developer brings their unique insights to the table. What X might overlook, Y might spot immediately
Shared Ownership: Everyone gets a turn at being the champion. This creates a shared understanding of the codebase's pain points and builds collective responsibility
Knowledge Spreading: Each champion learns different parts of the system intimately, then shares that knowledge when they rotate back to feature work.
Other approaches often result in technical debt being pushed aside when things get busy, but this strategy guarantees that someone is always working on it.
Suggestion:
Have the current champion do a quick show-and-tell during the sprint review. Let them share what they fixed and why it matters
This approach works best in teams of 5+ developers (in my experience)
If you use this approach, you will build a team-wide culture of code quality awareness.
#3. Technical-Debt Driven Development
What if managing technical debt wasn’t an afterthought?
Technical Debt Driven Development is a strategy that makes debt reduction part of the strategic roadmap.
Instead of building roads and later figuring out how to fix traffic problems, plan for traffic management while designing the roads.
Here’s how it plays out in practice:
the team starts by reviewing the roadmap and identifying upcoming features or goals
they analyze the codebase, looking for areas of technical debt that could block or slow down those efforts
they prioritize fixing that debt as part of the planned feature work
For example:
Let’s say your team is working on a new customer analytics dashboard.
During planning, they realized that the current data pipeline was poorly designed, making retrieving and processing the necessary metrics difficult. Instead of looking for a workaround, the team decides to refactor the data pipeline as part of the dashboard project.
This way, you will deliver the new feature and improve the codebase in the process.
This approach has two key benefits:
Strategic alignment: Debt reduction directly supports business priorities, making it easier to secure stakeholder buy-in
Efficiency: Teams avoid building features on shaky foundations, saving time and effort in the long run
With this approach, you’re no longer “squeezing in” debt fixes. Instead, you’re making them a natural part of delivering value.
The next time you’re helping your team planning features, ask them:
“What debt stands in the way, and how can we address it moving forward?”
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#4. Wall of Technical Debt (Visualization)
Sometimes, the best solutions are the simplest ones.
Make “the problem” impossible to ignore. That’s the idea behind the Wall of Technical Debt.
It’s a simple but powerful concept:
You create a physical wall display (or a digital one for remote teams) to track the most pressing technical debt issues. The goal is to make the “cost of technical debt” visible to everyone.
Here’s what the wall tracks:
Time wasted: How much time is being lost due to specific debt items (red notes)
Estimated fix time: How long it would take to resolve each issue (yellow notes)
Blocking issues: Areas of the codebase that are actively preventing progress (orange notes)
How does it work in practice?
The team gathers and identifies key technical debt items during retrospectives (or refinements)
Each item is written on a sticky note with relevant details: time wasted, estimated fix time, and blockers
The notes are displayed on a wall in a highly visible area (team’s workspace or a shared digital board)
For example:
Let’s say a team is repeatedly losing hours debugging issues caused by a poorly written authentication module. They add a sticky note to the Wall of Technical Debt that says:
Issue: The authentication module is buggy and hard to debug.
Time wasted: 6 hours/week.
Estimated fix time: 10 hours.
Now, everyone can see the problem—and its cost.
What’s good about this approach is that it transforms technical debt from an abstract problem into a concrete, actionable list. Stakeholders can clearly see where the team’s time is going and why fixing these issues matters.
This visibility creates urgency.
It sparks conversations about prioritization. And it helps teams and stakeholders align on what debt to address first.
#5. Regular Reviews (Transparency)
Want to know why most technical debt strategies fail?
They happen in isolation.
The solution?
Make technical debt a regular part of your team's rhythm.
Here’s how it works:
During Sprint Reviews:
take the time to address the current status of technical debt
highlight progress made on reducing debt, its impact on the sprint’s outcomes, and any remaining areas of concern
This keeps stakeholders informed and supports the importance of balancing features with technical improvements.
During Retrospectives:
Take a closer look at your team’s approach to managing debt. Ask questions like:Did technical debt slow us down this sprint?
Were we able to address any debt items?
How can we improve our process for reducing debt?
This approach has 2 key benefits:
It creates a feedback loop: Review → Adjust → Implement → Review
It keeps debt visible: When technical debt is discussed every sprint, it can't hide in the shadows
Suggestion: Create a "Technical Debt Time" in your sprint reviews. Give it 5-10 minutes every single time.
Caution: Don't turn these reviews into complaint sessions. Focus on actions and improvements.
Be consistent!
Make technical debt a regular part of your conversations, not just something you discuss when things break.
#6. Theme based Prioritization
This “focused” strategy helps teams reduce debt by concentrating on specific themes in each sprint.
This narrows the scope of technical debt and keeps the team productive.
Here’s how it works:
Pick a debt theme for the sprint. The theme could focus on areas that impact:
Critical system functionality: Fixing issues that could cause system failures or downtime
Security or performance concerns: Addressing vulnerabilities or optimizing slow components
New feature development: Cleaning up code or refactoring areas that block or slow down planned feature work
Developer experience and morale: Improving overly complex or frustrating parts of the codebase to make the team’s work smoother and more enjoyable
Plan the work.
Once the theme is chosen, the team identifies and prioritizes debt items within that category. You can do this during refinement. These items are added to the upcoming sprint alongside regular feature workExecute and evaluate.
During the sprint, the team focuses on resolving debt within the theme, and at the end of the sprint, they evaluate the impact of these efforts
For example:
Let’s say a team decides to focus on “performance improvements” in a particular sprint.
They identify several performance areas of technical debt, such as:
poorly optimized database queries and
an inefficient caching system
etc etc etc
Over the course of the sprint, they address these “only these” debt issues.
This approach has 2 key benefits:
Focus: The team can make noticeable progress in a specific area instead of spreading efforts too thin
Alignment: Themes align “debt work” with business goals, making it easier to justify the effort to stakeholders
Question to ask:
“What theme should we focus on next to make the biggest impact?”
#7. Dedicated Sprints
Sometimes, the best way to deal with technical debt is to give it your undivided attention.
That’s where Dedicated Sprints come in—a common (most widely used but least recommended) strategy where the team sets aside an entire sprint to focus solely on addressing technical debt.
We call these “refactoring sprints.”
They allow managing larger, more complex debt items that can’t easily fit into the regular sprint cycle.
When to use them:
before major feature releases
after rapid development phases
when technical debt is severely impacting productivity
when preparing for system-wide changes
What makes them effective:
Full Focus:
No context switching between features and fixes. Your team can dive deep into complex issuesBig Impact:
Some technical debt requires substantial refactoring that can't be done piecemeal. Dedicated sprints give you the time to manage these bigger challengesTeam Alignment:
Everyone working toward the same goal creates momentum and shared understandingClear Expectations:
Stakeholders know upfront that this sprint is about improving the foundation, not adding features
For example:
Let’s say a team is working on a “legacy” application that has grown increasingly difficult to maintain.
A Dedicated Sprint is scheduled to refactor the core authentication module, which has become a bottleneck for new features. Over the course of the sprint, the team:
rewrites the module,
simplifies its structure, and
improves test coverage
Caution: Use strategically. Don’t let the team rely on dedicated sprints. Use them to address major debt when regular sprint cycles aren’t enough.
When your team feels like technical debt is holding them back, consider asking:
“Is it time for a Dedicated Sprint to clear the path forward?”
#8. Definition of Done
One of the most effective ways to prevent technical debt is to address it before it even begins.
The Definition of Done outlines the criteria that must be satisfied for a task, feature, or user story to be considered complete. By embedding practices that reduce or prevent technical debt, teams create a culture of delivering clean, maintainable code.
Here’s what to include in your DoD:
Automated tests:
Ensuring code is covered by unit tests and acceptance tests to catch bugs early and maintain reliability
Refactored code:
Refactoring code to ensure it is clean, efficient, and adheres to best practices before marking a user story or feature as done
Clean architecture:
Verifying that new functionality integrates flawlessly with the existing architecture without introducing unnecessary complexity or shortcuts
Successful build integration:
Confirming that the code passes all build and integration tests
Benefits:
Consistency: Every piece of work meets a high standard, reducing the risk of accumulating debt over time
Regular debt management: Teams address potential issues during development rather than deferring them to a later date
Improved quality: Clean, well-tested code leads to fewer bugs
Learn how to define the Definition of Done here.
Caution: Don't make your DoD so strict it becomes paralyzing.
#9. 10-20 Capacity Rule
One of the most practical and consistent ways to address technical debt is through Dedicated Capacity Allocation.
By reserving a portion of each sprint specifically for technical debt reduction and refactoring tasks, teams can ensure that debt is addressed incrementally without compromising feature development.
The most common approach is to allocate 10-20% of the sprint’s capacity to focus exclusively on technical debt.
Why 10-20? It's a sweet spot.
If you spend less than 10%, technical debt will accumulate faster than you can handle. More than 20% and your feature delivery might suffer.
This approach helps in finding that perfect balance between progress and maintenance.
Here's how it works:
In a two-week sprint with 100 story points, you'd reserve 10-20 points specifically for technical debt work.
This IS NOT optional. It's a commitment.
The benefits appear ONLY when the team is “consistent.” Over time, this prevents debt from accumulating to unmanageable levels.
Benefits:
Consistency: Regularly addressing technical debt ensures it doesn’t grow unchecked
Balance: Teams can manage technical debt without sacrificing feature delivery or business goals
Predictability: Stakeholders can rely on consistent feature delivery without ignoring technical debt
Question: Same vs Separate Backlog
I get this question a lot:
Should we keep tech debt in the same backlog or a separate one?
Before I answer this question, we need to understand why “timeboxing” is so important when managing technical debt.
Let’s say your team is refactoring a legacy system.
Without a time box, the team may fall into a rabbit hole—"While we're here, let's also improve the password validation... and maybe update the encryption... oh, and this session management could use work too..."
Two weeks later, you're still refactoring, features are delayed, and stakeholders are nervous.
But with a time box of, say, 3 days, you focus on the most important improvements, deliver them, and move on.
Now, let's talk about where to keep these time-boxed debt items.
For Scrum Teams:
Put your technical debt items directly in your product backlog. Right there with your features, bugs, and everything else.
Why?
Because what you see, you manage.
When a Product Owner sees a critical technical debt item sitting next to a new feature request, they understand the real trade-offs. It creates healthy conversations:
"We can add this new feature now, but first, we need two days to fix this tech debt that's slowing us down."
For Kanban Teams:
Create a separate debt backlog.
Why?
Because Kanban's continuous flow allows you to maintain a steady stream of both feature work and debt work.
Set up your Kanban board with dedicated lanes:
Feature Development
Technical Debt
Both have clear WIP limits
Regardless of the process used…
The KEY is “visibility” and “time” constraints:
make the debt visible
time box the work
track the progress
Whether using one backlog or two, “time boxing” is your guardrail against scope creep. It keeps technical debt management focused, efficient, and, most importantly — done.
The Journey Forward
Technical Debt Management is everyday work which requires consistent execution.
No magic solutions exist.
Individual practices or tools won't eliminate your technical debt. Success comes from “combining” multiple strategies and applying them “consistently” over time.
Here are a few suggestions to start off on the right foot.
Start with one practice.
Don't try to revolutionize everything at once. Choose an approach that fits your team's context—perhaps the 10-20 rule or dedicated capacity allocation. Implement it well, learn from the results, adjust as needed, and then consider adding another practice.
Keep debt visible.
Hidden technical debt grows unchecked. Whether in your main backlog or a separate one, make debt visible enough to drive decisions and actions.
Build strong habits.
Like financial debt, tech debt compounds when ignored. Make debt reduction part of your standard development process. Time-box, allocate capacity, and stick to your chosen ratios consistently.
Acknowledge progress.
When your team successfully reduces significant technical debt, recognize the achievement. These improvements might be less obvious than new features but are equally crucial for long-term sustainability.
Stay current.
Software development practices evolve rapidly, and so should your debt management approach. Remain open to new tools and processes. Today's effective practice is going to need adjustment tomorrow.
Technical debt IS NOT a mistake.
It's an “inherent” part of software development.
Your approach to managing it determines whether it becomes a “liability” or an “opportunity” for improvement.
Research
https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/10-years-of-research-in-technical-debt-and-an-agenda-for-the-future/
https://inria.hal.science/hal-03282762v1/document
https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/cset16/cset16-paper-nord.pdf
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10449672
hypersense-software.com/blog/2024/06/18/managing-technical-debt-software-projects/
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2912/paper2.pdf
https://caisy.io/blog/avoid-technical-debt
https://www.reddit.com/r/SoftwareEngineering/comments/11xn464/systematically_managing_technical_debt/
https://www.reddit.com/r/dotnet/comments/13gayqh/how_do_you_manage_technical_debt/
https://doasync.com/blog/how-to-handle-technical-debt-in-scrum/
https://www.iteratorshq.com/blog/what-is-technical-debt-in-software-development-and-how-to-manage-it/
https://blog.codacy.com/avoiding-technical-debt
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/tech-debt-reclaiming-tech-equity
https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3894095
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/give-me-a-list-of-different-wa-NXUKN3zCS6WHdK.wui.Wjg
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Winning Strategy provides insights from my experiences at Twitter, Amazon, and my current role as an Executive Product Coach at one of North America's largest banks.