What is technical debt, and why is it important to invest time addressing it?

Remember to include several reasons why technical debt might occur in your response. Technical debt is a shared team concern, and the causes are both business and technical in nature.

"Technical debt represents the cost that must be incurred to address technical quality issues that occur for various reasons during the development process. The root cause of technical debt can be timeline constraints, lack of knowledge/expertise, budget issues, or an inability to leverage the best technology available at the time of development.

It is important to address technical debt on a continual basis. Ignoring it can result in future difficulty in making important product changes. A certain level of debt is to be expected, but teams should regularly dedicate time to assess debt levels and determine why debt has occurred. Teams should also develop strategies to address any avoidable or accidental technical debt causes in the future."