Why is my development team getting slower?

"Why does a button take three days?" you ask. "Backend needs updating," Tom responds. "Plus the API is legacy," Lisa adds. You catch half of it, but sense this: It'll cost more and take longer than those three days.

Next week, it's worse. What takes three days today will need a full week next month. Every day, estimates get shakier, discussions drag longer, explanations grow more convoluted.

You recognise this pattern: Your team fixes a checkout bug. Next day, search breaks. They repair search, login stops working. It's like constant firefighting - extinguish one blaze, another flares up somewhere else.

Every Friday brings the same ritual: Will this release work, or wreck everyone's weekend? Fifty-fifty odds, and nobody can predict which way it'll go. You're seriously considering banning Friday releases altogether.

You start wondering: Is my team overwhelmed? Have they lost motivation? Do they need more support?

The real culprit

This problem wears many masks: 'legacy code', 'technical debt', 'outdated architecture'. Ultimately, it's all the same beast: technical debt.

Picture technical debt like an office that's never been organised. Initially, you stack a few documents on your desk - quick and effective. Months later, every simple task takes triple the time because you're constantly hunting through piles. Papers lie scattered everywhere because you've rifled through that stack three times without ever tidying up afterwards. Eventually, you've even stapled together things that have no business being connected. The mess compounds daily.

That's precisely what's happening in your codebase. The simple login button must navigate through three separate, poorly integrated systems - like a document that needs to pass through five chaotic filing cabinets. Every minor change triggers unexpected consequences because nobody can track what connects to what anymore.

Your action plan

Step 1: Understand and assess the problem

You grasp what technical debt means, but you need to evaluate your specific situation. Run an analysis session with your team: Get them to identify the three technical issues consuming the most time. Demand explanations in plain English, not tech jargon.

The crucial question: Can this be addressed alongside regular work, or must all new feature development stop? This answer shapes your entire strategy and stakeholder communication. Also get realistic timelines - for your internal planning, not stakeholder promises.

Step 2: Get stakeholders on board

This step determines whether your plan succeeds or fails. Without stakeholder buy-in, even the most capable team will struggle.

Your case:

• An 8-person team costs €600,000 annually. If they're only half as productive, you're burning €300,000 per year
• Initially, this requires significant investment, but long-term the maintenance becomes part of normal operations
• Every month's delay makes the problem costlier: What needs 3 months cleanup today becomes 6 months next year
• This chaos grows exponentially. Eventually, nothing functions - but then the problem makes the decisions for us, not the other way around

Handling resistance by stakeholder type:

C-level/Senior Management: "We're currently losing 40% of our development capacity to technical debt. This investment breaks even within 6 months."

Marketing/Sales: "You're promising features we can't deliver. Post-cleanup, we can make realistic commitments again."

Other departments: "Imagine working in a completely disorganised office - that's what our code feels like right now."

For feature freezes (the toughest sell): "Two choices: 3 months complete halt, then normal pace resumes. Or continue as-is and lose 30% more speed annually."

Step 3: Execute with team focus

Scenario 1 - Incremental cleanup: Allocate 20-30% of sprint capacity to technical debt. Have the team prioritise and systematically tackle the critical issues from Step 1. Frame the reduced feature velocity to stakeholders as planned investment.

Scenario 2 - Full stop: The system has hit breaking point. Intensive cleanup for 1-3 months with zero new features. It's painful, but sometimes unavoidable. Your stakeholder groundwork from Step 2 becomes crucial here - without their understanding, this approach will collapse.