Don’t Refactor. Fix What Creates the Mess.

Your tech debt is growing. The reflex is predictable. “Let’s dedicate 20% of sprint time to refactoring.” “We need better code reviews.” “Let’s track code coverage and cyclomatic complexity.” “More unit tests will fix this.”

Time passes implementing these practices. Six months later? The debt is worse. Velocity hasn’t improved. The best developers are still frustrated.

That’s what happens when optimizing the wrong thing — treating the fever while ignoring the infection.

The Systemic CTO’s Different View

A systemic CTO doesn’t ask “How do we fix this code?” They ask “Why does this code exist?”

The difference changes everything.

Technical debt isn’t just bad code. It’s the wrong code. Code that shouldn’t exist. Systems you built instead of buying. Abstractions you missed. Boundaries you ignored.

Look at any struggling codebase. You’ll find:

• Custom authentication systems when Auth0 exists
• Homegrown payment processing when Stripe is available
• Hand-rolled message queues instead of using RabbitMQ
• Bespoke monitoring instead of DataDog or similar solution.

But it goes deeper. Between code and business sits another layer of debt:

• Data models that don’t match business reality
• No clear separation…