- 1. What Is the Scrum Methodology?
- 2. Guide to Scrum Sprints
- 3. Scrum Sprint Planning
- 4. The Complete Guide to Scrum Ceremonies
- 5. The Ultimate Guide to Sprint Retrospectives
- 6. Daily Scrum Meetings
- 7. Scrum of Scrums Meeting
- 8. Introduction to Scrum Team and Roles
- 9. What Is a Scrum Product Owner?
- 10. What Is a Scrum Master?
- 11. Best Scrum Software and Tools for 2023
- 12. A Complete Guide to Scrum Boards
- 13. Scrum Glossary
- 14. FAQs
- 1. What Is the Scrum Methodology?
- 2. Guide to Scrum Sprints
- 3. Scrum Sprint Planning
- 4. The Complete Guide to Scrum Ceremonies
- 5. The Ultimate Guide to Sprint Retrospectives
- 6. Daily Scrum Meetings
- 7. Scrum of Scrums Meeting
- 8. Introduction to Scrum Team and Roles
- 9. What Is a Scrum Product Owner?
- 10. What Is a Scrum Master?
- 11. Best Scrum Software and Tools for 2023
- 12. A Complete Guide to Scrum Boards
- 13. Scrum Glossary
- 14. FAQs
What Is Scrum Technical Debt?
Technical debt is a concept in software development that refers to the potential cost of rework caused by taking an easy solution over a longer but better approach.
To give a simple example: Imagine you are building a chair. You choose the materials you can get quickly and cheaply. The resulting chair is fine — until one day, weeks later, it breaks beneath you. Now you have to re-make your chair, adding work you could have avoided if you’d spent more time on it in the first place.
Examples of Scrum technical debt can include code copied from another project, untested code, or ‘spaghetti architecture’ (code that is unstructured and difficult to maintain). The shortcut is beneficial today but could become expensive tomorrow when you have to go back and fine-tune your work.
How do Scrum teams deal with technical debt?
Though the official Scrum Guide does not mention technical debt, it is an inevitable part of software development.
In Scrum, the product owner is responsible for managing the product backlog, which lists all the work that needs to be done to complete the project. The development team picks the product backlog items it will work on in the upcoming sprint.
The definition of ‘done’ (DoD) in Scrum is a collection of criteria that must be present for a backlog item to be considered complete. It’s a checklist that helps the team come to a shared understanding of the project deliverables.
The DoD drives Scrum teams to reach higher quality standards. However, they may discover new information in the course of their work that can change the definition of ‘done.’ This, in turn, can lead to rework on previous product increments. So, how should teams handle
Scrum technical debt and avoid getting overwhelmed by it?
- Be transparent about Scrum technical debt. One of the main principles of Scrum is empirical process control, which is based on the ideas of transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Don’t hide technical debt from the product owner or stakeholders. Address it at sprint review ceremonies and visualize it for the team.
- Add technical debt to the product backlog. This allows the product owner to prioritize the technical debt in future sprints and allocate team resources to rework and bug fixing.
- Adjust your definition of ‘done.’ A good DoD should include the tasks required to ensure that technical debt is addressed — for example, you could stipulate that “code should remain stable when new features are added” for an item to be ‘done.’
Scrum technical debt is the responsibility of the entire team, but with the core Scrum principle of transparency in mind, dealing with it becomes much easier.
Alex Zhezherau
Alex is Wrike’s Product Director, with over 10 years of expertise in product management and business development. Known for his hands-on approach and strategic vision, he is well versed in various project management methodologies — including Agile, Scrum, and Kanban — and how Wrike’s features complement them. Alex is passionate about entrepreneurship and turning complex challenges into opportunities.