technical debt

Technical debt refers to the extra work or shortcuts taken during software development, often in order to meet deadlines or reduce immediate costs. These shortcuts might involve postponing better solutions or avoiding thorough testing. While they can help deliver features quickly, they may lead to more complex, harder-to-maintain code in the future, requiring additional effort to fix or improve. Think of it as borrowing time: quick fixes now might cause problems later that need extra work to resolve. Managing technical debt involves balancing short-term gains with long-term maintainability.