How To Effectively Manage Technical Debt As An Engineering Manager

If you’ve ever owned a house, how did that feel?

If you’re like most, walking inside for the first time probably felt amazing. But even the best homes eventually need work.

Some of this will be cosmetic, such as:

• Repainting a room
• Installing different floor tiling
• Or putting in new windows

But some of these tasks will be more urgent, such as fixing old pipes or replacing a leaky roof. In a perfect world, you’d have an infinite amount of time and money to do so.

In the real one, none of us do. And because of these limits, you have to make hard choices.

For instance, where does your money go? Probably to the house’s mortgage, food, and kids if you have them, although maybe not in that order.

And what about your time? Aside from work, definitely to your kids (again, if you have them), but probably also to cleaning and home maintenance. You can’t complete everything for that last responsibility all at once, so you have to determine which jobs are the most important and urgent.

Doing this requires knowing what:

• You want
• You actually need