slug: technical-debt
title: "Technical Debt — Identifying, Measuring, and Paying It Down"
version: 1.0.0
description: "Understand technical debt, measure it, prioritize paydown, and communicate it to stakeholders."
category: developer-skills
tags: [technical-debt, refactoring, code-quality, maintenance, architecture]
difficulty: intermediate

xp:
  read: 15
  walkthrough: 40
  exercise: 25
  quiz: 20
  quiz-perfect-bonus: 10

time:
  quick: 5
  read: 20
  guided: 50

prerequisites: [code-review]
related: [clean-code, solid-principles]

triggers:
  - "What is technical debt?"
  - "How do I convince my manager to pay down tech debt?"
  - "How do I measure technical debt?"
  - "When should I refactor vs rewrite?"

visuals:
  diagrams: [diagram-mermaid, diagram-flow]
  quiz-types: [quiz-matching, quiz-timed-choice]
  playground: null
  slides: true

sources:
  - url: "https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebtQuadrant.html"
    label: "Martin Fowler's Tech Debt Quadrant"
    type: docs