Managing Technical Debt: A Path to Innovation and Growth
June 27, 2025
3 min read
June 27, 2025
3 min read
Technical debt has graduated from being a back-office burden to a business-wide financial challenge that looms large over the entire organization. With a price tag of $1.52 trillion in the United States alone, technical debt is a problem that clearly needs to be reined in. The key is managing the technical debt, not ignoring it.
Gartner defines technical debt as “work that is ‘owed’ to an IT system when teams ‘borrow’ against long-term quality by making short-term sacrifices, taking short cuts, or using workarounds to meet delivery deadlines.”
Traditionally, this applies to software development practices—quick fixes or deferred improvements that must be addressed later, often at a higher cost. But the concept extends beyond code. Technical debt can also accumulate through architectural choices, legacy systems, and resource constraints that gradually erode IT efficiency and resilience.
These burdens can quietly grow, reducing agility and increasing costs as teams spend more time maintaining systems instead of innovating.
Left unmanaged, technical debt can lead to:
When IT leaders delay addressing this debt—whether in code or infrastructure—they take on a calculated risk that can lead to lost productivity, rising costs, and strategic setbacks.
No one starts out trying to accumulate technical debt, but you would be hard pressed to find an IT organization anywhere that doesn’t carry it in some form or another. However, teams that mitigate the problem successfully gain the flexibility to innovate faster, serve their clients better, and scale more efficiently.
Managing your technical debt can result in:
The idea is to strike the right balance between stability and innovation.
Technical debt crowds out innovation spending. With the help of a trusted advisor like Origina, organizations can turn this IT risk into an optimized business advantage. By maintaining core applications and keeping critical systems running smoothly, independent software maintenance extends the life of the solutions you rely on and ensures the entire estate stays secure and supported—all at less cost than traditional OEM vendor support. The resulting savings can then be invested into growth initiatives.
Through deliberate investment in managing technical debt, companies can pave the way for sustainable growth, overcome current technology challenges, and foster IT resilience. Here are a few ways an independent software maintenance provider can help mitigate your organization’s technical debt.
Increased agility and flexibility. A proactive IT strategy empowers organizations to adapt quickly to changing market dynamics. With decreased technical debt, teams are free to shift their focus to innovation, which enables faster deployment of new features and service that meet evolving customer demands.
Long-term financial savings. While initially managing technical debt involves some upfront costs, the long-term savings are substantial. Continuous maintenance and emergency fixes can be expensive, but a proactive support strategy minimizes these expenditures and ensures sustained financial health for the organization.
Improved collaboration and productivity. A streamlined IT infrastructure reduces friction between teams, encourages collaboration, and boosts productivity. Developers, IT personnel, and stakeholders can work more cohesively, focusing on shared goals rather than resolving recurring technical issues.
Want to read about how to deal with technical debt within your organization? Our e-book, “Building Resilient IT Systems: Confronting Technical Debt Challenges,” shines a light on the practices that accrue technical debt and how mitigating them can help achieve long-term IT stability.
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