Tech debt's real cost goes beyond slow delivery — it erodes predictability, kills optionality, and damages stakeholder trust. When estimates are consistently wrong due to accumulated debt, teams lose credibility and business partnerships suffer. The post argues engineering leaders must translate technical debt into business risk language: unpredictability, lost experimentation opportunities, and trust erosion. Practical advice includes reserving ~20% of engineering capacity for sustaining work and maintaining a visible inventory of known debt areas to prioritize paydown.
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