Hosted by
Duncan Mapes and Jason Ehmke
Building in the Enterprise
Tech debt exists at the intersection of engineering, business incentives, and system architecture. In complex organizations, it becomes a multidimensional problem involving operational risk, system reliability, long-term scalability, and developer productivity. In this analytically grounded episode, Duncan and Jason dissect tech debt through the lens of system thinking. They introduce a working model for categorizing tech debt into functional, structural, and data-related risk, explaining how each impacts throughput, incident frequency, and time-to-recovery. They also examine how vulnerabilities and poor data contracts masquerade as “bugs” but are often symptoms of deeper architectural debt. The conversation presents a practical playbook for leaders: how to assess tech debt, measure its economic impact, define acceptable thresholds, and integrate it into strategic planning.