The primary cause of technical debt in your organization is very likely your managers – not your programmers nor your architects. The management desire to be “on time and on budget” often motivates deployment of poor-quality assets and rarely leaves room for investment in long-term quality. Although technical professionals may readily realize this problem managers often do not, or if they do they don’t view technical debt as a priority. It is time for a change. This presentation explores the root causes of technical debt within organizations, many of which trace back to the management mindset and the strategies that result from it. Just like the technical challenges of addressing technical debt must be addressed by technical solutions, the management challenges of technical debt must be addressed by management solutions. It works through how to make leadership aware of technical debt and its implications, how to evolve your management practices to avoid and address technical debt, and enterprise-level strategies to embed technical debt thinking and behaviors into your culture. Results from industry research are shared throughout.

1. TECHNICAL DEBT
A MANAGEMENT PROBLEM THAT REQUIRES A
MANAGEMENT SOLUTION
Scott Ambler
Vice President & Chief Scientist, Disciplined Agile
Project Management Institute
@scottwambler
Copyright Project Management Institute
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2. Scott Ambler
© Project Management Institute. All rights reserved.
2
pmi.org/disciplined-agile
Co-creator of Disciplined Agile
VP & Chief Scientist, Disciplined Agile at PMI
Twitter: @scottwambler
linkedin.com/in/sambler/

3. Agenda
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• What is technical debt?
• What causes technical debt?
• How do management behaviors affect technical
debt?
• Talking with management about technical debt
• What mindset shifts need to occur to properly
address technical debt?
• How can management behavior change so as to
reduce and avoid technical debt while still
achieving their other outcomes?
• Learn more

4. Technical debt
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5. What is Technical Debt?
Technical debt is the accumulation of
defects, quality issues (such as difficult to
read code or low data quality), poor
architecture, and poor design in existing
solutions
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6. Technical debt occurs in many places
• Architecture
• Automated tests
• Build infrastructure
• Code
• Data/database
• Documentation
• Operational
infrastructure
• Service/process
• Skills/people
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7. PMI 2021 Technical Debt Survey
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166responses
October 11 to November 29, 2021
25% of firms take on technical
debt intelligently
3% of firms indicate addressing
technical debt as their #1 priority
61% of firms indicate addressing
technical debt as their lowest priority
28%non-management,
37% project management,
35% senior management

8. © Project Management Institute. All rights reserved. 8
Highly
Agree
Highly
Disagree
Agree Disagree
Neutral
The “Good News”
Our IT leadership understands the implications
of technical debt.
I am empowered to act appropriately
regarding technical debt.
Our project managers
understand the implications
of technical debt.
Source: PMI’s 2021 Technical Debt Survey

9. © Project Management Institute. All rights reserved. 9
Highly
Agree
Highly
Disagree
Agree Disagree
Neutral
The Bad News
I believe that most technical debt in my
organization is taken on intentionally with a
realistic plan to address it later.
I believe technical debt reduces my
organization’s ability to act.
I believe my organization has
an effective strategy in place to
address technical debt.
Our non-IT leadership
understands the implications
of technical debt.
Source: PMI’s 2021 Technical Debt Survey

10. What Causes Technical Debt?
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11. Why Does Technical Debt Occur?
• Business pressures
• Lack of process
• Lack of alignment of implementation to requirements
• Lack of architectural thinking
• Lack of a regression test suite
• Lack of documentation
• Lack of collaborative development
• Poorly coordinated parallel development
• Delayed refactoring
• Lack of alignment to standards
• Lack of knowledge
• Lack of effective governance
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Source: Reworked from Wikipedia
Caused by
management
Influenced by
management
Technical

12. Management
Behaviors
and Technical
Debt
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13. The Management “Iron Triangle”
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On Budget
Quality
On Time
To Specification
• If you insist on building something “on
time, on budget, to specification” then
quality will suffer (technical debt
increases)
• Therefore, at least one of those three
factors must be allowed to vary
• Better yet, more than once should be
allowed to vary
• Agile iron triangle: scope must vary
• Elastic triangle: all three factors vary

14. FACT:
Being forced to “deliver on time”
motivates development teams
to take quality short cuts
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15. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Non-Mgmt
Project Mgmt
Senior Mgmt
Personal Belief: Which is more important, delivering on time or addressing technical
debt
Being On Time Both are Equal Addressing Tech Debt
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Source: PMI’s 2021 Technical Debt Survey

16. FACT:
Being forced to “deliver on budget”
motivates development teams
to take quality short cuts
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17. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Non-Mgmt
Project Mgmt
Senior Mgmt
Personal Belief: Which is more important, being on/under budget or addressing
technical debt
Being On/Under Budget Both are Equal Addressing Tech Debt
© Project Management Institute. All rights reserved. 17
Source: PMI’s 2021 Technical Debt Survey

18. FACT:
There is a direct trade-off between
investing in new functionality
and in paying down technical debt
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19. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Non-Mgmt
Project Mgmt
Senior Mgmt
Personal Belief: Which is more important, adding new functionality or addressing
technical debt
Adding New Functionality Both are Equal Addressing Tech Debt
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Source: PMI’s 2021 Technical Debt Survey

20. Talking With Management
About Technical Debt
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21. FACT:
You are more likely
to convince someone
when you relate your message to
what they believe to be important
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22. Talking with Senior Management
Their Focus* Your Message
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*Source: PMI’s Global Megatrends 2022 Report
Digital disruption (rapid change)
Demographic shifts (aging workforce)
Economic shifts (resilience)
Labor shortages
Better quality enables swift response
Poor quality is brittle
Better quality is easier to evolve
Nobody wants to work in technical sewage

23. Technical Debt Quadrant
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Reckless Prudent
Deliberate
Inadvertent
“We don’t have time
for architecture”
“We don’t have time
for design”
“We must ship now
and deal with the
consequences later”
“What is layering?”
“What are design
patterns?”
“Now we know how
we should
have done it”
Source: Martin Fowler
As an organization,
we must be strategic
about how we take
on technical debt.

24. Talking with Project Management
Their Focus Your Message
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Source: PMI’s Global Megatrends 2022 Report
We need to deliver on time
We need to be on budget
We need to deliver new functionality
It is faster to work with high-quality
assets
It is easier to extend high-quality assets
It is cheaper to work with high-quality
assets

25. Technical Debt Quadrant: Warning!
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Reckless Prudent
Deliberate
Inadvertent
“We don’t have time
for architecture”
“We don’t have time
for design”
“We must ship now
and deal with the
consequences later”
“What is layering?”
“What are design
patterns?”
“Now we know how
we should
have done it”
Source: Martin Fowler
“Dealing with the
consequences later”
= not a problem for
this project

26. FACT:
Some people find metaphors
easier to understand
and remember
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27. The Financial Debt Metaphor
We take on financial debt because we want
something now that we don’t have sufficient
funds to pay for.
We take on technical debt because we want
functionality now that we don’t have the time
or money to build properly now.
© Project Management Institute. All rights reserved. 27
Just like carrying some financial debt makes sense,
so does carrying some technical debt. Be very smart about it.

28. The Anchor Metaphor
Too much technical debt is like having an
anchor tied to us, reducing our ability to move.
Our assets are brittle, hard to understand, and
difficult to evolve.
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Excessive technical debt holds us back.

29. Shifting Our Mindset
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30. The Disciplined Agile Mindset
The Way of Thinking for Enterprise Agility
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31. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Non-Managers
Project Managers
Senior Managers
What is the most important priority in my organization?
Address Tech Debt New Functionality On or under budget Deliver on time
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Source: PMI’s 2021 Technical Debt Survey

32. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Non-Managers
Project Managers
Senior Managers
What is the least important priority in my organization?
Address Tech Debt New Functionality On or under budget Deliver on time
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Source: PMI’s 2021 Technical Debt Survey

33. Towards True Predictability
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On Budget
Quality
On Time
To Specification
The Traditional “Iron Triangle”
Value
Regular
releases
Invest
wisely
What stakeholders
need
The Disciplined Agile “Elastic Triangle”

34. Shifting
Management
Behavior
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35. Highly disagree
25%
Disagree
30%
Neutral
18%
Agree
20% Highly agree
7%
I believe that most technical debt in my organization is taken on
intentionally with a realistic plan to address it later
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Source: PMI’s 2021
Technical Debt Survey

36. Technical Debt Quadrant: Management Implications
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Reckless Prudent
Deliberate
Inadvertent
“We don’t have time
for architecture”
“We don’t have time
for design”
“We must ship now
and deal with the
consequences later”
“What is layering?”
“What is data
normalization?”
“Now we know how
we should
have done it”
Source: Martin Fowler
Invest in educating
your staff
Invest in more
effective processes
Reduce risk via
technical spikes and
minimum viable
products (MVP)
Make this decision
strategically

37. What forms of technical debt are you measuring?
29%
30%
31%
34%
34%
40%
45%
56%
79%
Service/process
Skills/people
Operational infrastructure
Build infrastructure
Documentation
Data/database
Test automation
Architecture
Code
© Project Management Institute. All rights reserved. 37
Source: PMI’s 2021 Technical Debt Survey
What gets
measured gets
improved

38. Parting
Thoughts
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39. Challenges
• Business often doesn’t understand technical
debt
• Business wants new functionality
• Time-to-market concerns are often allowed to
override long-term sustainability concerns
• Acceptance of technical debt is typically the
result of short-term tactical thinking, not long-
term strategic thinking
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40. Technical Debt Requires a Culture Change
• Make technical debt awareness part of your culture
• Educate people in technical debt and the implications of it
• Help people recognize the tradeoffs that they’re making
• Communicate, communicate, communicate
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41. Make Addressing Technical Debt a Priority
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Adding new
functionality
31%
Being on or
under budget
15%
Addressing
technical
debt
3%
Delivering on
time
51%
What is the most important
priority in my organization?
Adding new
functionality
11%
Being on or
under
budget
22%
Addressing
technical
debt
61%
Delivering
on time
6%
What is the least important
priority in my organization?
Source: PMI’s 2021 Technical Debt Survey

42. © Project Management Institute. All rights reserved. 42

43. Thank You!
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pmi.org/disciplined-agile
• Twitter: @scottwambler
• linkedin.com/in/sambler/

44. Call to Action:
Learn more
about
Disciplined
Agile
Copyright © Project Management Institute. All rights reserved.
PMI.org/disciplined-agile
• Intro to agile and lean
• Understand the extensive options in the DA toolkit
• Improve at personal and team level
• Enterprise-class agile
• Lead improvement at team(s) level
• Lead improvement across disparate teams
• Lead improvement across value streams
and organization
44

45. BACKUP
SLIDES
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
WWW.PMI.ORG/DISCIPLINED-AGILE
FEBRUARY 3, 2022
Disciplined Agile Overview © Project Management Institute. All rights reserved. 45

46. Technical Debt Avoidance Strategies
Detailed up-front architecture modeling
Team members trained in technical debt
Team works with Enterprise Architects
Team includes Architecture Owner/Agile
Architect
Tech debt considered when designing
Lightweight up-front architecture
12%
16%
19%
39%
49%
53%
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Source: SA+A 2015 Q1 Agile State of the Art Survey
46

47. Learn more
about
Disciplined
Agile
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Basics of Disciplined Agile online course
• An eight-module, self-paced and scenario-based introduction to how
Disciplined Agile works.
• PMI.org/da-basics
Agile Certification
• PMI.org/certifications/agile-certifications
• PMI.org/learning/training-development/authorized-training-partners/find
Books
• PMI members can download the Choose Your WoW book from
PMI.org/disciplined-agile/books/dad-handbook
Websites
• DA hub: PMI.org/disciplined-agile
• Blogs: ProjectManagement.com/blogs/

48. PMI’s Agile Certification Journey
PMI.org/certifications/agile-certifications
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49. 49
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50. T H I N K I N G P O I N T
How to read
a process
goal diagram
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51. Some Organizations using Disciplined Agile
51
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