DEFINITION
Technical Debt Spiral
Accumulating Technical Debt from Unreviewed Changes
Definition
A pattern where rapid, unreviewed changes compound into increasing complexity and side effects. Each change adds more debt, making future changes harder and requiring more context to understand the system.
Examples in the Wild
- Example 1:Committing without review or testing
- Example 2:Bundling multiple feature requests in single prompts
- Example 3:Losing context between changes
- Example 4:Side effects piling up from unreviewed modifications
- Example 5:Cognitive debt from skipping understanding phase