Your engineers spend 40% on maintenance. Here’s how to get half of that back.
JetBrains data shows engineers spend 2-5 working days per month on tech debt. For a team of 50 engineers, that’s roughly $2 million per year just servicing the interest.
Most teams try to fix this with “debt sprints” or “20% time.” Both fail. Here’s what works:
1. Make debt visible in planning.
If it’s not on the board, it doesn’t exist. Track maintenance work the same way you track features. When leadership sees that 40% of capacity goes to keeping the lights on, priorities shift.
2. Budget debt paydown like you budget for infrastructure.
Not “we’ll get to it when we have time.” Allocate 15-20% of each sprint explicitly for debt reduction. Treat it as non-negotiable as security patches.
3. Stop adding faster than you’re paying down.
Every shortcut today is next quarter’s maintenance burden. Before approving “just ship it,” ask: what’s the carrying cost?
The companies breaking this cycle don’t treat debt as a cleanup project. They treat it as a budget line-with owners, metrics, and executive visibility.
The 40% trap is real. But it’s not permanent.
What’s your current maintenance-to-innovation ratio?