BlogTechnical Debt
Technical Debt10 min read

Technical Debt Remediation: How to Calculate the ROI

Treating debt remediation as a capital investment changes the conversation entirely.

By Richard Ewing·

The Investment Framework

Instead of "we need to refactor," say "this $400K investment will reduce maintenance costs by $1.2M annually." ROI = (Annual Savings - Investment) / Investment.

Key inputs: current maintenance cost per sprint, projected reduction after remediation, implementation cost, time to complete. Typical remediation projects show 200-500% ROI within 12 months.


Book an R&D audit →

Like this analysis?

Get the weekly engineering economics briefing — one email, every Monday.

Subscribe Free →

More in Technical Debt

Published Work

This article expands on ideas from my published work in CIO.com, Built In, Mind the Product, and HackerNoon. View published articles →

📊

Richard Ewing

The Product Economist — Quantifying engineering economics for technology leaders, PE firms, and boards.