Organisational debt

Organisational debt is the equivalent of technical debt, but for an organisation.

Using the definition of technical debt on Wikipedia I propose the following definition for organisational debt:

Organisational is a concept in management that reflects the implied human cost, in term of time, salary, frustration and burnout, of additional rework caused by choosing an easy (limited) solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer.

While software developers are conscious of the technical debt, managers rarely so. Asking people to work more, for longer hours is adding to the deficit. Actions that increase productivity, like training, automation and delegation, will reduce it.

comments powered by Disqus