Manage Your Technical Debt

Make the case to manage technical debt in terms of business impact.

The Situation

All organizations, of all sizes, have some amount of technical debt, but very few systematically track, manage, and communicate it.
Deferred project work is pushed over to operations, sometimes with little visibility or hand-off, where it gets deprioritized and lost.
IT doesn’t have the resources or authority to make needed changes to address the impact of tech debt and can’t make the case for improvement without good data on the problem.
Efforts to track technical debt get stuck in the weeds, don’t connect technical issues to business impact, and run out of steam.

Manage Your Technical Debt visualization

Define and identify your technical debt. Focus on tech debt you think you can actually fix.
Conduct a streamlined and targeted business impact analysis to prioritize tech debt based on its ongoing business impact.
Identify options to better manage technical debt and present your findings to business decision makers.

Blueprint Contents

Manage Your Technical Debt – Executive Brief
Manage Your Technical Debt – Phases 1-3
Technical Debt Business Impact Analysis Tool
Roadmap Tool
Technical Debt Executive Summary Presentation

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.3/10

Overall Impact

$53,083

Average $ Saved

Average Days Saved

Member Testimonials
Client	Alberta Pensions Services Corporation
Experience	Workshop
Impact	10/10
$ Saved	N/A
Days Saved	50
Testimonial	The best part of our experience will be working together as a diverse cross-functional team with excellent facilitation, guidance, and support from... The best part of our experience will be working together as a diverse cross-functional team with excellent facilitation, guidance, and support from the Info-Tech team, enabling us to transparently identify and prioritize our most critical technical debt risks, apply rigorous business impact analysis, and collaboratively create a focused roadmap that balances modernization, governance, and operational efficiency, so we can make confident, data-driven technology decisions for the future.

Member Testimonials
Client	Board of Education of School Dist No. 61 (Greater Victoria)
Experience	Guided Implementation
Impact	10/10
$ Saved	N/A
Days Saved	N/A
Testimonial	Andrew was very knowledgeable and made some great suggestions and observations that got me thinking differently about where to prioritize. Andrew was very knowledgeable and made some great suggestions and observations that got me thinking differently about where to prioritize.

Member Testimonials
Client	South African Reserve Bank
Experience	Guided Implementation
Impact	10/10
$ Saved	$34,250
Days Saved	10
Testimonial	Best - SME advisory and context to fasttracked our thnking in developing an approach to manage technical debt. Best - SME advisory and context to fasttracked our thnking in developing an approach to manage technical debt.

Member Testimonials
Client	Agriculture Financial Services Corporation
Experience	Workshop
Impact	10/10
$ Saved	N/A
Days Saved	N/A
Testimonial	This was an excellent workshop and presentation. The facilitator was engaging and kept the conversation on track. Feedback from others in attenda... This was an excellent workshop and presentation. The facilitator was engaging and kept the conversation on track. Feedback from others in attendance was very positive. The results will certainly help us continue to identify and assess our technical debt moving forward. I answered "N/A" to the questions above as this is not project specific but will help Digital Services and AFSC manage and address technical debt. Thanks again for this session and the results/tools shared afterwards.

Member Testimonials
Client	City of Steamboat Springs
Experience	Guided Implementation
Impact	8/10
$ Saved	N/A
Days Saved	N/A
Testimonial	The conversations with Andrew were great, including those that went slightl off topic to topics adjacent to tech debt. The project was not a formal... The conversations with Andrew were great, including those that went slightl off topic to topics adjacent to tech debt. The project was not a formal one in the sense of coming up with a plan to tackle existing technical debt but the conversations were valuable to me.

Member Testimonials
Client	Health Canada
Experience	Workshop
Impact	9/10
$ Saved	$25,000
Days Saved	20
Testimonial	Positive energy made for an enjoyable time even though topic can otherwise be quite dull. Deliverable is solid and a great starting point for our c... Positive energy made for an enjoyable time even though topic can otherwise be quite dull. Deliverable is solid and a great starting point for our continued efforts. Roadmap tool though portable and easy to use, is a bit limited.

Member Testimonials
Client	The Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Experience	Workshop
Impact	8/10
$ Saved	$100K
Days Saved	20
Testimonial	While I have noted possible savings above - we cannot know the real impact until we implement some of the workshop results. Also since we are not ... While I have noted possible savings above - we cannot know the real impact until we implement some of the workshop results. Also since we are not a private company the savings may not relate the same way as them. On the workshop itself. Some technology interruptions we not ideal. There was great conversation elicited from the participants by the facilitator. This has also helped to spark the consensus in the branch that we need to continue to move forward as well as collaborate to fix our issues. I wonder if focusing on getting those in attendance to agree on a fewer number of technical debt items and their associated action items would prove to be more valuable. While our session shared a lot of TD I think we diluted our time with trying to assess too many things. The Roadmap tool is fantastic for the visual of the mess and how things would need to play out over time. Note that high number of items we had actually 'broke' the Roadmap as it was not able to map all the short term items we had without editing the hidden logic.

Member Testimonials
Client	Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada
Experience	Workshop
Impact	8/10
$ Saved	$50,000
Days Saved	20
Testimonial	The best part of the workshop was the fact that it was very interactive and all members participated actively. There wasn't really a worst part... The best part of the workshop was the fact that it was very interactive and all members participated actively. There wasn't really a worst parts. One of the main challenge of managing technical debts is that it touches so many areas of IT therefore prioritization is a must. Also, communicating this through the project / financial governance process is a must. Hervé

Member Testimonials
Client	Experience	Impact	$ Saved	Days Saved	Testimonial
Alberta Pensions Services Corporation	Workshop	10/10	N/A	50	The best part of our experience will be working together as a diverse cross-functional team with excellent facilitation, guidance, and support from... The best part of our experience will be working together as a diverse cross-functional team with excellent facilitation, guidance, and support from the Info-Tech team, enabling us to transparently identify and prioritize our most critical technical debt risks, apply rigorous business impact analysis, and collaboratively create a focused roadmap that balances modernization, governance, and operational efficiency, so we can make confident, data-driven technology decisions for the future.
Board of Education of School Dist No. 61 (Greater Victoria)	Guided Implementation	10/10	N/A	N/A	Andrew was very knowledgeable and made some great suggestions and observations that got me thinking differently about where to prioritize. Andrew was very knowledgeable and made some great suggestions and observations that got me thinking differently about where to prioritize.
South African Reserve Bank	Guided Implementation	10/10	$34,250	10	Best - SME advisory and context to fasttracked our thnking in developing an approach to manage technical debt. Best - SME advisory and context to fasttracked our thnking in developing an approach to manage technical debt.
Agriculture Financial Services Corporation	Workshop	10/10	N/A	N/A	This was an excellent workshop and presentation. The facilitator was engaging and kept the conversation on track. Feedback from others in attenda... This was an excellent workshop and presentation. The facilitator was engaging and kept the conversation on track. Feedback from others in attendance was very positive. The results will certainly help us continue to identify and assess our technical debt moving forward. I answered "N/A" to the questions above as this is not project specific but will help Digital Services and AFSC manage and address technical debt. Thanks again for this session and the results/tools shared afterwards.
City of Steamboat Springs	Guided Implementation	8/10	N/A	N/A	The conversations with Andrew were great, including those that went slightl off topic to topics adjacent to tech debt. The project was not a formal... The conversations with Andrew were great, including those that went slightl off topic to topics adjacent to tech debt. The project was not a formal one in the sense of coming up with a plan to tackle existing technical debt but the conversations were valuable to me.
Health Canada	Workshop	9/10	$25,000	20	Positive energy made for an enjoyable time even though topic can otherwise be quite dull. Deliverable is solid and a great starting point for our c... Positive energy made for an enjoyable time even though topic can otherwise be quite dull. Deliverable is solid and a great starting point for our continued efforts. Roadmap tool though portable and easy to use, is a bit limited.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency	Workshop	8/10	$100K	20	While I have noted possible savings above - we cannot know the real impact until we implement some of the workshop results. Also since we are not ... While I have noted possible savings above - we cannot know the real impact until we implement some of the workshop results. Also since we are not a private company the savings may not relate the same way as them. On the workshop itself. Some technology interruptions we not ideal. There was great conversation elicited from the participants by the facilitator. This has also helped to spark the consensus in the branch that we need to continue to move forward as well as collaborate to fix our issues. I wonder if focusing on getting those in attendance to agree on a fewer number of technical debt items and their associated action items would prove to be more valuable. While our session shared a lot of TD I think we diluted our time with trying to assess too many things. The Roadmap tool is fantastic for the visual of the mess and how things would need to play out over time. Note that high number of items we had actually 'broke' the Roadmap as it was not able to map all the short term items we had without editing the hidden logic.
Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada	Workshop	8/10	$50,000	20	The best part of the workshop was the fact that it was very interactive and all members participated actively. There wasn't really a worst part... The best part of the workshop was the fact that it was very interactive and all members participated actively. There wasn't really a worst parts. One of the main challenge of managing technical debts is that it touches so many areas of IT therefore prioritization is a must. Also, communicating this through the project / financial governance process is a must. Hervé

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