This can eventually lead to a backlog of customer frustration. Inevitably a company can find itself in a situation where working on anything new has to be balanced by addressing technical debt, or worse yet, any improvement they want to make is done in a “bolt-on” fashion adding debt on top of debt. I attribute this to a wide variety of reactionary cultural phenomena.

I liken it to a flat tire on your automobile. For those of us that are experienced or knowledgeable in this area (says the guy who used to be a tow truck driver in a previous life), if you have a puncture on the flat wall of the tire there’s a good chance you can plug or patch it. If it’s on the sidewall of the tire you’re going to need to replace the tire.