What Is Technical Insolvency?
The day when maintenance load exceeds 100% of engineering capacity. At that point, you literally cannot ship new features without taking on more debt.
Signs you're approaching insolvency: maintenance ratio increasing quarter-over-quarter, feature velocity declining despite growing team, bug count growing faster than resolution rate, key engineers leaving due to frustration.
How to Calculate Your Date
Plot your maintenance ratio trend line. Extrapolate to 100%. That intersection is your insolvency date. Most companies we assess are within 18 months.