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© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024

D. A. R. BrownTaming Your Dragonhttps://doi.org/10.1007/979-8-8688-0264-5_1

1. What Is Technical Debt?

Dr. Andrew Richard Brown¹

(1)

England, UK

Defining Technical Debt

Technical Debt Is Not a Technical Problem

Technical Debt Is a Trade-Off Problem

Technical Debt Is Also a Systems Problem

Technical Debt Is an Economic Problem

Technical Debt Is a Wicked Problem

Technical Debt Is a Broken Analogy

The Technical Debt Onion Model

Technical Layer

Trade-Off Layer

Economics/Games Theory Layer

Wicked Problems Layer

Is All Technical Debt the Same?

The Technical Debt Quadrant

Level: Architecture/Code/Other

Where in the SDLC Was the Debt Created?

What Was the ...

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