How to reduce technical debt and build a stronger foundation

Technical debt can feel like a weight holding your IT team back. The good news? With the right strategies, you can tackle it head-on and turn it into an opportunity for growth. In this guide, we’ll dive into practical ways to reduce technical debt while keeping your team productive and focused.

Technical debt: what it is and why it matters

Technical debt isn’t just messy code. It’s the cost of quick fixes, outdated systems, or skipped best practices. While taking shortcuts might speed up delivery in the short term, it often leads to slower development, more bugs, and frustrated teams later. Addressing technical debt is crucial for maintaining agility, innovation, and a healthy budget.

Recognizing the signs of technical debt

Technical debt often hides in daily frustrations or recurring challenges. Here’s how to spot it, with practical examples:

• Frequent bugs and patch fixes: If your team is repeatedly fixing the same issue (e.g., user authentication failures after every release), it could indicate poorly written or overly complex code.

• Sluggish development cycles: Are new features taking longer to deliver? For example, adding a simple button to an interface might involve weeks of wading through spaghetti code or debugging interdependent components.

• High onboarding time for new developers: If a junior developer spends their first month just figuring out how your system works, it’s a red flag. Lack of documentation or overly convoluted processes could be creating unnecessary friction.

• Recurring tech stack conflicts: If certain integrations or outdated libraries frequently break during updates (e.g., a legacy payment gateway that fails with every new API release), it’s time to assess their long-term cost.

How to quantify the cost of technical debt

Understanding the real cost of technical debt ensures it’s taken seriously. Use these examples to measure the impact:

• Lost productivity: Let’s say a developer spends 50% of their week untangling dependencies in an outdated module. Multiply that across a team, and you’ll see a significant chunk of time lost.

• Slowed innovation: Consider this: You want to roll out a feature that involves integrating with a new third-party tool, but the codebase is so fragile that adding anything risks breaking core functions. Delays like this hurt competitiveness.

• Maintenance costs: For example, if your infrastructure relies on a deprecated library, the cost of keeping it functional can exceed the cost of replacing it with a modern alternative.

• Customer experience: Poor performance or repeated outages caused by technical debt could lead to churn. For instance, a buggy mobile app update might result in a flood of negative reviews, damaging your brand.

After quantifying it, it's time to prioritize and create a roadmap to implement.

Prioritizing and categorizing technical debt

Effective prioritization ensures you tackle the most impactful debt first. Here’s how it works in practice:

• Severity: A broken CI/CD pipeline that halts deployments is critical and must be resolved immediately.

• Urgency: An outdated framework nearing end-of-life (e.g., Python 2 after Python 3 became standard) should be addressed before support is completely dropped.

• Business impact: Issues affecting customer-facing systems (e.g., slow-loading checkout pages) should take precedence over back-office tools.

Use a simple prioritization matrix:

• High Severity + High Impact = Immediate action

• Low Severity + High Impact = Plan for next sprint

• Low Severity + Low Impact = Backlog for future consideration

Miro’s agile tools can help you visually map and prioritize technical debt, keeping the whole team aligned.

Best practices for code quality

Clean code doesn’t just happen—it’s a habit your team needs to build. Try these approaches:

• Modular design: For example, instead of one massive function handling an entire user workflow, break it into smaller modules (e.g., login, profile update, notifications) that can be tested and updated independently.

• Code reviews: Establish a peer review process where developers check each other’s work. A reviewer might catch hardcoded values or unnecessary dependencies before they go live.

• Thorough documentation: For example, document API endpoints with tools like Swagger so future developers don’t have to reverse-engineer your code.

• Automated linting and testing: Tools like ESLint and Jest can enforce coding standards and catch errors early, reducing the need for manual checks.

Consistent application of these practices ensures long-term maintainability.

Tools to reduce technical debt and how to use them

Reducing technical debt is easier with the right tools. Here’s a list of highly effective tools and how they can help:

1. Linters (e.g., ESLint, Pylint)

How they help: Linters automatically check your code for errors, inconsistencies, or deviations from best practices. Use case:

• Standardize your codebase by enforcing a consistent style guide.

• Detect common issues, like unused variables or functions, before they escalate.

2. CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab)

How they help: CI/CD pipelines automate building, testing, and deploying code, reducing manual errors and ensuring stability. Use case:

• Integrate automated testing into your pipeline to catch bugs early.

• Deploy updates incrementally, reducing the risk of major regressions.

3. Static code analysis tools (e.g., SonarQube, CodeClimate)

How they help: These tools analyze your codebase for complexity, maintainability, and security vulnerabilities. Use case:

• Get actionable insights into problem areas, such as overly complex code or duplicated blocks.

• Track trends in technical debt over time and measure improvements after refactoring.

4. Automated testing frameworks (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Jest)

How they help: Automated tests ensure that existing functionality isn’t broken by new changes. Use case:

• Create unit tests for small, reusable functions to quickly validate changes.

• Use integration tests to check how different components work together.

5. Dependency management tools (e.g., Dependabot, Renovate)

How they help: These tools monitor and update your project dependencies to keep them secure and compatible. Use case:

• Automatically alert you to outdated libraries or frameworks.

• Reduce risks of vulnerabilities by updating dependencies on a regular schedule.

6. Collaboration platforms (e.g., Miro, Jira, Trello)

How they help: Visual tools like Miro’s innovation workspace make it easier to track technical debt, collaborate on solutions, and plan sprints effectively. Use case:

• Use Miro’s templates to create a debt prioritization matrix.

• Collaborate asynchronously to track progress on refactoring tasks or code reviews.

7. Refactoring tools (e.g., IntelliJ IDEA, Visual Studio Code extensions)

How they help: Many IDEs offer refactoring features to simplify code improvement. Use case:

• Rename variables or methods without breaking references.

• Extract repetitive code into reusable functions with minimal risk.

8. Documentation tools (e.g., Miro, Confluence, Notion)

How they help: Centralized documentation ensures developers can quickly find and understand project details. Use case:

• Maintain an up-to-date architecture diagram to clarify how components interact.

• Document API endpoints, workflows, and best practices for your team.

9. Monitoring and logging tools (e.g., Datadog, Splunk, New Relic)

How they help: These tools identify performance bottlenecks and recurring errors in your system. Use case:

• Monitor slow API responses to identify problematic queries.

• Log and analyze recurring exceptions to find the root cause.

10. Agile project management tools (e.g., Miro, Azure DevOps, Rally)

How they help: Agile tools help integrate technical debt management into regular sprints. Use case:

• Add technical debt tasks to your backlog and prioritize them during sprint planning.

• Use reporting features to demonstrate progress in reducing debt to stakeholders.

Combine tools for maximum impact

Each tool plays a specific role in reducing technical debt, but the real power comes when they’re used together. For instance, combine SonarQube with your CI/CD pipeline to automatically check code quality during deployments, or pair Miro with Jira to create a visual roadmap for debt reduction.

Engaging stakeholders in debt reduction

Non-technical stakeholders might not immediately see the importance of reducing technical debt. Use these strategies to bring them on board:

• Translate debt into business terms: Instead of saying, “We need to refactor this codebase,” explain, “This update will reduce downtime, allowing us to ship features 20% faster.”

• Showcase ROI: Present a before-and-after scenario. For instance, highlight how addressing a critical debt issue cut bug reports by 50% or reduced server costs by optimizing database queries.

• Use visual tools: Miro’s AI-powered visual canvas can help you create a clear, engaging presentation that maps out technical debt and its impact on timelines, budgets, and customer satisfaction.

• Involve them in prioritization: Share a list of technical debt items and collaborate on deciding which to tackle first based on business impact. For example, involve the sales team in prioritizing fixes for a slow CRM tool they rely on daily.

By framing technical debt reduction as a business enabler, you can secure the buy-in needed to make meaningful progress.

Make reducing technical debt a habit

Reducing technical debt isn’t a one-time project—it’s a continuous effort. Agile workflows are perfect for tackling technical debt. During sprint planning, allocate time for debt-reduction tasks. Use sprint reviews to assess progress and adjust priorities.

Miro’s collaborative features make it easy to visualize and track debt alongside your backlog. It can help you and your team plan, collaborate, and execute strategies that keep your codebase clean and your business agile.

Ready to get started? Try Miro today and make technical debt a thing of the past.