It’s payback time! : Developing a strategy to resolve technical debt

As companies seek to exploit the full potential of various information systems to reach their strategic goals, they must balance the system-maintenance obligations that arise through the systems’ development and use. As evolution brings new deployments, novel features, and changes in socio-technical configuration while legacy systems get withdrawn, replaced, and reconfigured over time in response to changes in technological/organizational requirements, the challenge of managing technical debt remains etched deeply into the organization’s technology environment. The teaching case addresses organizations’ need to come to grips with the various types of that debt, and to devise a corresponding strategy aligned with their current state. Relevant for executive education in the information systems discipline, the case presents the challenge of managing technical debt and formulating an appropriate strategy for organized efforts to repay it and prevent it from mounting excessively.