Technical debt is a common challenge in software development. It creeps in when teams cut corners—sometimes knowingly—to meet tight deadlines. While a certain level of technical debt is inevitable, uncontrolled debt can cripple delivery speed, reduce quality, and impact team morale.

Scrum teams can use the Definition of Done (DoD) not just as a checklist for completeness but also as a proactive mechanism to track and reduce technical debt. By integrating debt indicators directly into the DoD, teams gain visibility and control over long-term code health and product quality.

What Is Technical Debt?

Technical debt refers to the implied cost of additional work caused by choosing an easier or faster solution now instead of a better approach that takes more time. This may involve skipping unit tests, leaving hardcoded logic, or delaying refactoring tasks.

While technical debt is sometimes strategic, allowing teams to ship quickly and validate value early, unchecked debt becomes a liability. Over time, it accumulates like financial debt—with interest. The longer you ignore it, the more expensive it becomes to address.

Scrum’s Role in Managing Technical Debt

Scrum is designed for iterative delivery, which makes it easy for small amounts of debt to sneak into each Sprint. Without clear standards, teams may compromise on engineering practices to complete user stories quickly. This is where the Definition of Done plays a crucial role in setting the quality bar.

The Scrum Guide defines DoD as a shared understanding of what it means for work to be complete. A well-crafted DoD sets a team-wide baseline for completeness, which often includes coding standards, peer reviews, testing requirements, documentation, and release readiness.

How Definition of Done Helps Track Technical Debt

The DoD can evolve into more than a quality checklist. It can serve as a live instrument for detecting and managing technical debt in real time. Here’s how:

• Exposes shortcuts: When DoD items are skipped or marked incomplete, it creates a clear trail of where technical debt is accumulating.
• Promotes discipline: Teams that treat DoD seriously are less likely to bypass tests, reviews, or refactoring steps.
• Quantifies debt: Incomplete DoD items during Sprint Reviews or Retrospectives act as objective debt signals.

Embedding Technical Health Criteria into the DoD

Scrum teams should enhance their DoD to include indicators that highlight potential debt. Consider adding the following clauses:

• All automated tests (unit, integration, regression) must pass.
• Code coverage must meet a team-defined threshold (e.g., 80%).
• All static code analysis warnings should be resolved or justified.
• Security and performance tests must be executed.
• Technical documentation should be updated.
• Refactoring tasks identified during development must be captured in the backlog.

By making these items non-negotiable, teams reduce the risk of invisible technical debt hiding behind “Done” work. This promotes transparency and encourages responsible development behavior.

Visualizing Technical Debt with Sprint Metrics

To track technical debt, teams can visualize DoD compliance in Sprint metrics. This adds accountability and visibility:

• Debt Burndown Chart: Tracks backlog items that don’t meet DoD due to technical shortfalls.
• DoD Compliance Score: Calculates the percentage of completed stories that met all DoD criteria.
• Technical Debt Register: Maintains a visible list of known shortcuts, incomplete refactors, or ignored warnings.

These artifacts can inform the Product Owner about long-term risks and help the team prioritize technical improvements alongside business features.

When and How to Discuss Technical Debt in Scrum Events

Scrum Event	Technical Debt Discussion Opportunity
Sprint Planning	Include known debt items or incomplete DoD work from past sprints.
Daily Scrum	Highlight blockers caused by past technical shortcuts.
Sprint Review	Share DoD compliance stats with stakeholders. Expose areas of concern.
Sprint Retrospective	Discuss recurring DoD violations. Identify root causes and plan mitigations.

Balancing Business Value and Technical Health

Product Owners often focus on business outcomes. However, unaddressed technical debt will slow down delivery and introduce quality risks. The Scrum Team must collaborate to maintain a sustainable pace and ensure that technical health is not compromised in the race to ship features.

This means making debt repayment a visible and planned activity. Teams can:

• Tag backlog items as "Tech Debt"
• Allocate Sprint capacity for cleanup/refactoring tasks
• Use stakeholder reviews to justify the need for debt remediation

When technical health becomes a shared concern, it improves long-term velocity and quality.

Role of the Scrum Master in Addressing Technical Debt

The Scrum Master plays a key role in helping teams recognize and act on technical debt. They facilitate DoD creation and evolution, guide the team toward sustainable practices, and create visibility into quality-related risks.

Whether you're undergoing CSM training or advancing your role through a SAFe Scrum Master certification, understanding how technical debt impacts team performance is essential.

Best Practices to Keep Technical Debt Manageable

• Regularly refine the DoD with feedback from retrospectives
• Maintain a healthy ratio of new feature development vs. technical backlog
• Include senior engineers or architects in DoD review sessions
• Educate stakeholders about long-term cost of ignoring debt
• Automate compliance checks where possible

Conclusion

Technical debt is a reality for any Scrum team, but it doesn't have to be a silent killer. When teams use the Definition of Done as a living contract for quality, they gain a powerful tool to expose, track, and reduce debt before it snowballs.

By embedding technical standards into your DoD and inspecting DoD compliance regularly, you create a system of accountability that fosters better code, healthier products, and more sustainable delivery.

Whether you're just starting your journey through Certified Scrum Master training or advancing toward SAFe leadership with SAFe Scrum Master training, tackling technical debt early is a mark of true agility.

Want to dive deeper into engineering quality? Explore this guide on technical debt by Martin Fowler.

 

Also read - Scrum and Test Automation: Building a Sustainable Testing Strategy

Also see - Handling Platform Upgrades and Tech Refresh in Scrum Projects