Despite our best intentions, technical debt creeps into our systems. A lot of it — perhaps most of it — is in our designs. This bit rot slowly saps the quality of even the best designs. Eliminating technical debt through continuous code maintenance and refactoring has only recently been recognized as a design principle, and some people still question it. It’s no less essential for the controversy. In fact, it may be the most important of all the design principles. By focusing on removing technical debt, a team can overcome any number of poor design decisions.
