[thewanisdown]

The core trade-off is "what does the business need now" vs "what are the long term goals". I only consider the technical debt that will block us in the future.

At any given decision point, you need to understand when technical debt is accrued and track it like any other issue. If you don't actively acknowledge technical debt from the onset, you place your business goals at risk.

In general, I see that the most politically charged projects are also accruing the most technical debt. They have high pressure, short time-frames, and scope creep out the wazoo. Those take the most of my time, and are extremely prone to failure unless there's a human shield to keep the heat off.