Tech Debt:
it's a mortgage

Tech Debt:
it's a mortgage
In the startup world, speed is everything. Launching an MVP before the competition, iterating on user feedback, and growing at breakneck speed. In this race against time, phrases like, "Let's just make it work for now" or "The important thing is to go live," are the norm.
These phrases, familiar to both founders and developers, are the very moment you sign for a mortgage: Technical Debt.
Often seen as the enemy, let's be clear: technical debt is not a bug.
A bug is an error, an unexpected behavior in the software. Technical debt, however, is the result of a choice, often a deliberate one. It’s the trade-off you accept when you choose a quick-and-dirty solution today, knowing it will require more work to fix or rewrite in the future.
For example, you take on technical debt when you:
It's not a failure, but a strategic decision (or a poor one, if made unconsciously). Sometimes, taking on this debt is the right choice to test a market hypothesis and survive. The problem arises when you forget you have it.
Many of us, unfortunately, understand financial mortgages all too well. Let's apply that concept to code to identify the real risk.
Just like a financial mortgage, the interest on technical debt compounds. The longer you wait to "pay it back" (e.g. by refactoring), the more the cost of maintenance and new development increases non-linearly. Eventually, the entire system becomes so fragile and expensive to modify that problems become increasingly critical and blocking. Adding a simple feature can take days. This is the point where technical debt can cause a startup to fail or, at the very least, undermine its path to breakeven.
Let's look at a simple, practical example. Imagine we need to display a different welcome message depending on the user type (e.g. "Free," "Premium," etc.).
The "quick" version
For the MVP, we might write a function like this, directly in the UI component:
function WelcomeMessage({ user }) {
let message = 'Welcome, guest!';
if (user && user.plan === 'Free') {
message = 'Welcome! Upgrade to Premium for more features.';
} else if (user && user.plan === 'Premium') {
message = `Welcome back, ${user.name}! Enjoy your Premium access.`;
} else if (user && user.plan === 'Admin') {
message = 'Admin Panel Access Granted.';
}
return <h1>{message}</h1>;
}
Why is this debt? It works, and it's fast to write. But it's fragile. If we add a "Business" plan tomorrow, want to change the messages, or add new languages, we have to modify the internal logic of this component. The business logic is mixed with the presentation layer, making the code hard to test and maintain.
The "clean" Version
A more robust solution, however, separates concerns. The logic that decides which message to show is isolated in a dedicated module, while the component only handles how to display it. This simple decoupling—regardless of whether the logic lives on the client or server—makes the system easier to maintain, test, and evolve.
// file: services/greetingService.js
const messages = {
DEFAULT: 'Welcome, guest!',
FREE: 'Welcome! Upgrade to Premium for more features.',
PREMIUM: (name) => `Welcome back, ${name}! Enjoy your Premium access.`,
ADMIN: 'Admin Panel Access Granted.',
};
export function getWelcomeMessage(user) {
if (!user?.plan) {
return messages.DEFAULT;
}
const message = messages[user.plan.toUpperCase()] ?? messages.DEFAULT;
return typeof message === 'function' ? message(user?.name) : message;
}
import { getWelcomeMessage } from '../services/greetingService.js';
function WelcomeMessage({ user }) {
const message = getWelcomeMessage(user);
return <h1>{message}</h1>;
}
Why is this better? We've invested a bit more time upfront, but it will save us time in the future. Now, to add a welcome message for a new plan, we just need to modify a dictionary (though it would be even better to use an internationalization system like i18n).
This example is basic, but in a real project, these debts accumulate in hundreds of places, making manual analysis impractical.
Recently, we assisted a major player in the automotive industry with targeted Code Quality Assessment activities. The goal was to provide a detailed analysis of a couple of applications containing tens of thousands of files. A completely manual analysis would have been prohibitive, time-consuming and too expensive.
In scenarios like these, where applications are already complex and technical debt hasn't been tracked over time, using automated tools is not an option, but a necessity.
Fortunately, there are static code analysis tools that scan your codebase for issues, "code smells," and vulnerabilities, acting as a financial advisor for your "mortgage."
Beyond specific tools, incorporating automated analysis into your workflow is like receiving a constant report on the state of your debt. It makes it visible and quantifiable.
The goal isn't necessarily to eliminate all debt, but to manage it, deciding where to invest time and resources for the highest return on investment (ROI).
Treating technical debt like a mortgage, and not like a series of random mistakes, completely changes the perspective. It's a part of the development cycle, not something that "just happens." You must transform it from a technical problem into a strategic lever that a company can decide to use to accelerate, provided there is a repayment plan when appropriate.
A mature technology partner will never promise you debt-free code.
Instead, they will help you understand when it's wise to take on debt to conquer the market and when it's crucial to pause, consolidate, and "repay it," ensuring your startup can run fast today without tripping over itself tomorrow. The management of technical debt is the hallmark of a company built to last.
If you need help, we're here for you.
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Data di pubblicazione: 24 settembre 2025
Ultima revisione: 24 settembre 2025