## Taxonomy of Tech Debt Tech debt is code or data that future developers will pay a cost for. But not all tech debt is created equal. When deciding what tech debt to fix and when (if ever), Riot Engineering are using three metrics: - **Impact** - user-facing issues (bugs, missing features, unexpected behavior) and developer-facing issues (slower implementation, workflow issues, random useless things to remember) - **Fix cost** - what is the time and the risk of fixing the issue - **Contagion** - if this tech debt is allowed to continue to exist, how much will it spread? The first two metrics are commonly considered, while contagion is most often neglected. The main takeaway of this article - always think whether your tech debt will spread. A well-contained tech debt will maintain a consistent fix cost over time, whereas a contagious tech debt could escalate in complexity and impact, making it progressively challenging to address.