What Do Engineers Really Think About Technical Debt?

The State of Technical Debt 2021 Report explores the impact of tech debt on developer morale, velocity, and customer experience. Engineers say they spend 6 hours per week (roughly 1 day) dealing with technical debt. 58% of companies still have no process to manage technical debt, according to the report. Engineers believe the team would ship up to 100% faster if they had a process for technical debt. Another 15% think they would be 200% more productive. Engineers are convinced that technical debt is the primary reason for productivity losses. Backends contain the most amount of technical debt in the codebase.