I had seen a Martin Fowler article on technical debt before but the link to Ward Cunningham is new at the least.
As a part-time economist, it occurs to me that the debt metaphor actually doesn't work on some levels: Companies constantly increase their monetary debt, since THAT can be paid through increased profits. You actually wouldn't want a company that grew without increasing debt - that would be wasted resources. Technical debt is much worse to accumulate since it can only be paid by increased development time.
Also, one accumulates technical debt whether one wishes to or not. This is because often the only way to understand how to do a system right is to first do it wrong.
I had seen a Martin Fowler article on technical debt before but the link to Ward Cunningham is new at the least.
As a part-time economist, it occurs to me that the debt metaphor actually doesn't work on some levels: Companies constantly increase their monetary debt, since THAT can be paid through increased profits. You actually wouldn't want a company that grew without increasing debt - that would be wasted resources. Technical debt is much worse to accumulate since it can only be paid by increased development time.
Also, one accumulates technical debt whether one wishes to or not. This is because often the only way to understand how to do a system right is to first do it wrong.