Technical Debt vs. Architecture Debt: Don’t Confuse Them

Developers, project managers and even executives use the term “technical debt” to explain delays, instability or rising maintenance costs. Its meaning is simple and relatable: We cut corners to deliver faster, take on “debt” and later repay it through bug fixes, refactoring or rewriting code.

Yet, there is another, far more dangerous type of debt: architecture debt. Unlike technical debt, architecture debt is not visible in a pull request. It doesn’t appear as a broken unit test or a security vulnerability in a code scanner. It…