Let's not call it "tech debt," it's just "mess"

A few months ago I wrote about one of my methods for dealing with "technical debt" and I had to cut a huge throat-clearing section from the opening about how I don't really like the term "tech debt" as a metaphor. Obviously I'll use the term it when I'm talking to other software developers, but I try to avoid it when I'm talking to people in "the business." It's useful when it's used correctly, but usually when software developers say "tech debt," what they really mean is something more like "mess." This is a common enough usage that even when "tech debt" would be appropriate, people who aren't software developers but work with software developers often hear "mess," and they'll start to develop the impression that "tech debt" is something that developers say when they did their job poorly, or don't like how the previous team did it.The problem with "tech debt" as a metaphor is that businesses like debt. There's such a thing as "the right amount" of debt for a business. It's not zero.…