Let’s talk about technical debt. Technical debt has become the No. 2 issue for IT executives, as found in a recent IDG/Foundrysurvey. A majority, 86%, report having been impacted by technical debt in the last 12 months. The survey’s authors define “technical debt” as “the measure of the cost of reworking a solution caused by choosing an easy, yet limited, solution.” The fallout from technical debt included 43% citing the limited ability to innovate, 41% mentioning difficulty meeting SLAs, and 37% reporting outages and downtime.
On the flip side, Deloitte has some data around those businesses that define a digital strategy. The market valuation was two times higher among companies with alignment between technology and strategy compared to non-aligned counterparts.
Despite the upside to transformation, just 44% of companies have a high maturity related to digital strategy. Ultimately, the top-performing businesses define a digital strategy, align tech with that strategy, and can commit to digital change, resulting in a 5% higher market valuation.
Technical debt is something organizations of all sizes have to address, and too many ignore it. The advice here is to dedicate a portion of resources at all levels – daily, weekly, monthly, yearly – to address it as a continuous change process rather than let it build to make it more painful.
Do you know what that sounds like? A service.