Tech Debt Can Stay In The Backlog

Someone built an entire second-story deck supported by what appears to be two flimsy 2x2 posts. The structural integrity here is about as solid as a codebase held together by duct tape and prayer.

The homeowner is asking if they should upgrade to something thicker, which is like a developer asking "Should I refactor this spaghetti code that's somehow keeping the entire application alive?" The answer is obviously yes, but here's the thing: it's still standing. It hasn't collapsed yet. Ship it!

Every engineering team has that one critical system running on deprecated libraries from 2012, held up by the programming equivalent of toothpicks. Everyone knows it needs fixing. It's been in the backlog for 3 years. But the business wants new features, and as long as it's not actively on fire, it gets pushed to next sprint. And the next. And the next.

Sure, one day those 2x2s will snap and someone's deck (or production server) will come crashing down. But that's a problem for Future You™, and Future You is way more experienced at handling disasters anyway.