In today’s digital-first economy, the pressure to innovate faster than the competition is unrelenting. But in that urgency, many organizations find, when looking back, that they cut corners; choosing short-term fixes over scalable, sustainable solutions. The result? Technical debt — a growing challenge that affects productivity, innovation, business continuity and even client relationships. 

While some technical debt is strategic and manageable, much of it becomes a silent killer, slowly eroding an organization’s ability to evolve. In 2025, IT leaders are treating tech debt as a strategic priority. 

What Is Technical Debt? 

Technical debt refers to the future cost of choosing a faster or easier technical solution today over a better long-term approach.  

Tech debt causes: 

• short cut solutioning 

• a patchwork of requirements over the years with a product that the foundation was never designed to support 

• bad design 

Like financial debt, it can be a useful tool—if managed. But left unchecked, it compounds interest in the form of complexity, inefficiency, and risk. 

Types of Technical Debt 

Understanding the different types of tech debt is the first step toward managing it: 

1. Deliberate (Intentional) Debt 

Taken on knowingly to hit a product launch or meet a deadline. This is often seen in startups or MVP development where speed outweighs polish. 

2. Accidental (Unintentional) Debt 

Occurs when teams make decisions without full understanding or due to lack of expertise. This often occurs when nontechnical decision makers pull the trigger on a technical change without evaluating the technical risks. It also arises when systems grow organically without proper architectural planning. 

3. Patchwork Debt 

Requirements changing over the years for a product that the foundation was never designed to support.  This happens when business requirements are not set with future proofing in mind and as well for unforeseen opportunities that the software needs to grow into. 

4. Design Debt 

This results from poor architectural decisions, tight coupling of systems, or lack of scalability considerations. Over time, it hinders extensibility and performance. 

5. Code Debt 

Messy, poorly documented, or duplicated code that slows development, increases bugs, and makes onboarding new developers more difficult. Regular code audits are the easiest way to ensure this is not an ongoing issue. 

6. Testing and Automation Debt 

Skipping automated tests or manual deployment processes adds fragility to systems and increases operational overhead. Testing is critical and its importance is often overlooked. Clients or vendors can choose to forgo QA with a software vendor in favour of a PPS style testing on their side, this can contribute to mounting testing debt. 

7. Deployment Management Debt 

Failing to track deployed software versions in your version control system, issue tracking software, and in deployment to production. This high-risk deployment strategy makes it nearly impossible keep your production environment stable, and removes the ability reap the benefits of a hotfix when you need one. 

8. Documentation Debt 

Missing or outdated documentation slows development, impedes knowledge transfer, and increases reliance on tribal knowledge. With senior technical staff entering retirement and new generations having the propensity to job hop, this poses a major risk for any company. 

How Tech Debt Impacts the Business 

Technical debt might start in engineering, but its consequences ripple throughout the business: 

• Reduced Developer Velocity: Developers spend more time fixing bugs or navigating fragile code than delivering new features. 

• Slower Innovation: Teams hesitate to launch new initiatives due to system fragility or complexity. 

• Increased Costs: Legacy systems and poor code quality lead to higher maintenance costs and more outages. 

• Customer Dissatisfaction: Technical glitches, slow platforms, and inconsistent experiences can push customers to competitors. 

• Security Risks: Outdated components and legacy platforms increase vulnerability to cyber threats and compliance issues. 

Ultimately, technical debt erodes agility—the one trait businesses need most to survive and thrive in a fast-moving digital market. 

How IT Leaders Are Tackling Tech Debt in 2025 

Recognizing the strategic threat of technical debt, CIOs and CTOs are taking a structured and business-aligned approach to resolution. 

1. Making Tech Debt Visible 

Leaders are treating technical debt like financial debt—tracking, categorizing, and reporting it. 

• Maintaining tech debt registers to log and prioritize known issues. 

• Using metrics like code churn, velocity impact, and incident frequency to measure debt. 

• Including debt in business reporting to get stakeholder buy-in for cleanup efforts. 

2. Shifting to Product-Oriented Delivery 

Many IT organizations are moving from project-based delivery to product-centric models. This shift promotes long-term ownership, making teams more accountable for the quality and sustainability of the systems they manage. 

• Empowering product teams to own tech health. 

• Prioritizing technical backlog alongside business features. 

3. Setting Aside Dedicated Capacity 

Some organizations are adopting a “20% for tech debt” rule—allocating part of every sprint or quarter to refactoring, improving documentation, or updating frameworks. 

• This creates continuous improvement without waiting for a major overhaul. 

• It reduces burnout by letting teams clean up their own messes. 

4. Modernizing Legacy Infrastructure 

Rather than rip-and-replace, IT leaders are: 

• Re-platforming monoliths to cloud-native microservices. 

• Wrapping legacy systems with APIs to enable integration without full migration. 

• Using low-code platforms to extend legacy workflows without deep refactoring. 

5. Driving a Culture of Engineering Excellence 

Tech debt often thrives in environments where speed is valued over quality. Leading CIOs are reshaping culture by: 

• Investing in developer experience tools (e.g., CI/CD pipelines, static code analysis). 

• Encouraging pair programming, code reviews, and internal tech audits. 

• Recognizing and rewarding engineers who tackle foundational improvements—not just flashy features. 

6. Collaborating with the Business 

Technical debt only becomes a priority when its business impact is clear. CIOs and CTOs are building business cases that connect tech debt to: 

• Missed revenue opportunities 

• Rising support costs 

• Increased time-to-market 

• Reputational risks 

Framing the problem in business language helps secure budget, increase executive attention, and garner organizational support. 

Final Thought: Strategic Debt Management Is Your Competitive Advantage 

Every company has technical debt—it’s unavoidable in fast-moving environments. But in 2025, the competitive edge will go to those who manage it strategically, treat it transparently, and invest in sustainable, adaptable systems. 

Tech debt doesn’t just slow down developers—it slows down the business. By confronting it head-on, business leaders can drive faster innovation, reduce risk, and build the kind of resilient infrastructure today’s digital enterprises demand. Our Advisory Division at STEP has been helping clients with their toughest tech debt dilemmas for over two decades; we offer a complimentary 30-minute consultation to see if we can help you too.