What is Product Debt Index (PDI)?
The Product Debt Index is Richard Ewing's proprietary diagnostic score that quantifies an organization's total technical debt in dollar terms.
The Product Debt Index is Richard Ewing's proprietary diagnostic score that quantifies an organization's total technical debt in dollar terms. Unlike traditional technical debt metrics that use abstract units like story points, the PDI translates debt into financial language that CFOs and boards can act on.
The PDI considers: maintenance-to-innovation ratio, dependency health, code coverage, deployment frequency, incident rate, team velocity trends, and infrastructure costs. Each dimension is scored and weighted to produce a single composite score from 0 (debt-free) to 100 (technical insolvency).
PDI score ranges: 0-20 (Healthy — debt is managed and minimal), 20-40 (Moderate — debt is accumulating but manageable), 40-60 (Critical — debt is impacting velocity and requires immediate intervention), 60-80 (Severe — approaching Technical Insolvency Date), 80-100 (Terminal — engineering capacity is consumed by maintenance).
The free PDI calculator at richardewing.io/tools/pdi provides an automated assessment based on organizational inputs.
Why It Matters
The PDI provides a single, trackable metric for communicating technical health to non-technical stakeholders. It transforms technical debt from a vague engineering concern into a quantified financial risk.
How to Measure
1. Calculate your maintenance-to-innovation ratio.
2. Assess dependency health and vulnerability count.
3. Measure code coverage and deployment frequency.
4. Track incident rate and MTTR.
5. Calculate APER (revenue per engineer).
6. Run the PDI calculator at richardewing.io/tools/pdi.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Product Debt Index?
The PDI is a proprietary diagnostic score (0-100) that quantifies technical debt in dollar terms. Created by Richard Ewing to translate engineering problems into financial language for boards and CFOs.
How do I calculate my PDI?
Use the free calculator at richardewing.io/tools/pdi. It considers maintenance ratio, dependency health, code coverage, deployment frequency, incident rate, and team velocity.
Free Tools
Related Terms
Need Expert Help?
Richard Ewing is a Product Economist and AI Capital Auditor. He helps companies translate technical complexity into financial clarity.
Book Advisory Call →