You’ve noticed the pattern.
Six months ago, a new feature took two weeks. Now, similar features take six. Your developers say they’re “blocked by legacy code.” Every fix creates two new bugs. The platform that was supposed to scale your business is now slowing it down.
This is technical debt. And left unchecked, it kills companies.
What Technical Debt Actually Is
Technical debt is the accumulated cost of shortcuts, workarounds, and “we’ll fix it later” decisions in your codebase.
Like financial debt, it compounds. A small shortcut today becomes a major constraint tomorrow. And eventually, you’re spending all your time servicing the debt instead of building value.
Common sources:
- MVP code that was never refactored
- Quick fixes that became permanent
- Architecture that made sense at 100 users but not at 10,000
- Changing requirements layered on outdated foundations
- Multiple developers with different standards
- Hiring pressure that prioritised speed over quality
Every startup has technical debt. The question is whether it’s managed or out of control.
Signs Your Tech Debt Is Becoming Unmanageable
1. Velocity Decline
Features that used to take days now take weeks. The same developers, working just as hard, producing less output.
What’s happening: They’re spending time navigating complexity, working around problems, and fixing breakages caused by changes elsewhere.
2. Bug Proliferation
You fix one bug, two more appear. Regression testing catches less than it used to. Customers report issues you thought were resolved.
What’s happening: Code dependencies are tangled. Changes in one area cascade unpredictably to others.
3. Developer Frustration
Your best engineers are frustrated. They talk about “the codebase” with resignation. Some are looking for other jobs.
What’s happening: Good developers want to build things properly. Working in a messy codebase demoralises them.
4. Fear of Changes
The team is reluctant to touch certain parts of the system. “Don’t touch the billing module” or “nobody understands the auth flow anymore.”
What’s happening: Knowledge has been lost. The code is so fragile that changes risk breaking things nobody fully understands.
5. Scaling Failures
Your system handles normal load fine but falls over during peaks. Database queries that worked at small scale now timeout.
What’s happening: Architecture decisions made for a smaller product can’t handle growth.
Why Developers Can’t Fix This Alone
You might think: “We have developers. Why can’t they just fix the debt?”
Several reasons:
They’re too close to the code. They built some of it. They’re navigating it daily. They often can’t see the forest for the trees.
They lack authority. Paying down debt means building fewer features. Without leadership backing, developers get pressure to keep shipping, not cleaning.
They don’t see the full picture. A developer knows their module intimately. They don’t necessarily know how architectural decisions across the system create compound problems.
They can’t communicate to stakeholders. Explaining technical debt to non-technical founders requires translation skills most developers don’t have.
Technical debt is a strategic problem masquerading as a technical one. It needs leadership, not just development.
How a Fractional CTO Addresses Technical Debt
Step 1: Honest Assessment
The first thing a fractional CTO does is audit your codebase. Not just code quality — business impact.
- Where is debt concentrated?
- What’s the cost of leaving it (velocity loss, bug rate, scaling risk)?
- What’s the cost of fixing it (time, resources, disruption)?
- Which debt is critical vs. tolerable?
This creates a shared understanding between technical and business stakeholders. No more arguments about whether there’s a problem — the data shows the reality.
Step 2: Prioritised Strategy
Not all debt needs fixing. Some debt is fine to live with. Some is annoying but not critical. Some is existential.
A fractional CTO creates a strategy that prioritises:
Fix now: Debt that’s actively blocking business progress or creating unacceptable risk.
Fix soon: Debt that will become critical if left for another 6–12 months.
Tolerate: Debt that’s annoying but doesn’t justify the cost of fixing.
Rewrite later: Areas so broken that incremental fixes aren’t worth it — plan a proper rebuild when time allows.
Step 3: Business Alignment
The CTO translates technical debt into business terms.
“If we don’t address the payment module debt, we can’t support the enterprise clients you’re pursuing.”
“The current architecture means we can’t handle more than 2x current load. If the sales push works, we’ll have outages.”
“Developer velocity is 40% of what it should be. That’s costing us 6 months of product development annually.”
This creates the business case for investment. Debt reduction stops being a technical request and becomes a strategic priority.
Step 4: Integrated Approach
Good tech debt strategy doesn’t mean stopping all feature work for six months. That’s rarely realistic — or necessary.
A fractional CTO integrates debt reduction into normal development:
- The 20% rule: Every sprint includes 20% capacity for debt reduction.
- Opportunistic refactoring: When touching an area, improve it.
- Strategic rewrites: Plan major work for lower-demand periods.
- New code standards: Stop creating new debt while paying down old.
Step 5: Monitoring and Accountability
Debt reduction needs tracking. How fast are you paying it down? Is velocity improving? Are bug rates declining?
A fractional CTO establishes metrics that prove progress and maintains accountability — both for the team delivering and the business supporting.
Real Impact: What Changes
When technical debt is properly managed, businesses typically see:
Velocity improvement: 30–50% increase in feature delivery speed within 6 months.
Bug reduction: 50–70% decrease in production issues.
Developer retention: Engineers stop leaving (or start joining) because the codebase isn’t demoralising.
Confidence to grow: The platform can scale with the business instead of constraining it.
Faster innovation: When changes are safe and quick, experimentation becomes possible.
The Cost of Inaction
Every month you delay, the debt compounds.
- Developers spend more time on workarounds
- Features take longer to ship
- Bugs consume more support resources
- Good engineers leave for better codebases
- Scaling opportunities get missed
I’ve seen companies reach the point where the only option is a complete rewrite — 6–12 months of rebuilding what already existed. That’s the end state of unmanaged technical debt.
The cost of a fractional CTO is £4,000–£10,000 per month.
The cost of a complete rewrite is £200,000–£500,000 and a year of lost progress.
Getting Started
If technical debt is slowing your business:
1. Acknowledge the problem. Stop pretending “we’ll fix it later.” Later is now.
2. Get an external assessment. Someone outside the team can see what those inside can’t.
3. Create a strategy. Not just a list of fixes — a prioritised plan with business alignment.
4. Commit resources. Debt reduction requires time. Build it into capacity planning.
5. Track progress. Measure velocity, bug rates, and developer sentiment. Prove the investment is working.
Technical debt is a leadership problem. Solve it with leadership.
FAQ
How long does it take to see improvements?
Initial velocity gains: 2–3 months. Significant improvement: 6 months. Major transformation: 12+ months. Speed depends on debt severity and resources committed.
How much development capacity should go to debt reduction?
Typical range: 15–25% of sprint capacity. More for severe situations. Less once debt is under control.
Should we stop all feature work to fix debt?
Almost never. Integrated approaches work better. The exception: if the platform is genuinely broken (frequent outages, can’t scale), a focused fix period may be necessary.
Can’t we just rewrite everything?
Rewrites are expensive, risky, and usually underestimated. In most cases, incremental improvement is better. Rewrites make sense for truly broken systems — but that’s a last resort, not a first option.
What if our developers disagree with the CTO’s assessment?
Healthy. The CTO should explain reasoning and listen to developer perspectives. But ultimately, someone needs to make decisions. That’s what leadership is for.
Related: Fractional CTO: When to Hire One (And What to Expect) | Signs Your Startup Needs a Fractional CTO (Not a Developer) | Fractional vs Full-Time CTO: The Real Cost Breakdown
