The pile of shortcuts holding the product together, spoken of like a mortgage nobody intends to pay.
What they actually mean
The code works and nobody knows why.
Heard in the wild
"We'll tackle tech debt next quarter" — said every quarter since 2019.
The therapeutic practice of spending three hours debating a completely trivial detail to avoid addressing the fact that the core system does not actually function.
"Let's not get caught bikeshedding the hex code for the cancel button while the main database is actively melting down."
Translation
"I do not understand the underlying software architecture, but I do have very strong feelings about pastel shades."
An optimistic, single-sentence fairy tale about how an imaginary person intends to use a software feature, written to avoid having to produce actual technical specifications.
"I've drafted the user stories for the new dashboard, so we are ready to build."
Translation
I have summarized three months of complex engineering work into 'As a user, I want a button'.
To design a software system with such magnificent complexity that its eventual failure can be blamed entirely on the laws of physics.
"If we architect this cloud infrastructure correctly, it should require an entire team of certified engineers just to keep the landing page online."
Translation
To overcomplicate a simple task to ensure permanent job security.