[Scubabear68]

This is well said and exactly right. Technical debt is normal, and you will find a reasonable amount even in very successful products. It needs to be evaluated against your total business context and priorities. Ideally you want this to be part of your process.

I have seen the result of projects where the team was overly obsessed with tech debt. The code may look nice, but there is not a lot of it, and the products are invariably feature poor and do poorly when real users get them in their hands. The team was so inwardly focused and they forgot the real world and things like users and features and market realities.

Some tech debt, some dirtiness and rough corners, show a living, breathing product reacting to its users and market and prioritizing value. But make sure you’re aware of what you’re accruing.