…to Steve McConnell for distilling out the key issues around technical debt:

“The reason most often cited by technical staff for avoiding debt altogether is the challenge of communicating the existence of technical debt to business staff and the challenge of helping business staff remember the implications of the technical debt that has previously been incurred. Everyone agrees that it’s a good idea to incur debt late in a release cycle, but business staff can sometimes resist accounting for the time needed to pay off the debt on the next release cycle. The main issue seems to be that, unlike financial debt, technical debt is much less visible, and so people have an easier time ignoring it.”

I would quibble with the “easier to ignore” aspect though as I think for the most part both kinds of debt attract the same behaviour - sticking our heads in the sand allowing things to get worse…..