All Tech Debt is NOT Created Equal

QCon London 2026

Session staff+

All Tech Debt is NOT Created Equal

Monday Mar 16 / 01:35PM GMT, Churchill (Ground Fl.) at The QEII Centre, London

Abstract

As we move into the era of AI, code that could be called slop or tech debt is increasing faster than ever. This means that managing that tech debt is just as important as ever. However, how do you prioritize which tech debt to work on? How do you convince others that any of it is important? In the world of AI, is it important? Our goal at the end, is not to eliminate tech debt, but to write the best software we can for the situation in which we find ourselves. In some cases this means more tech debt, in others, less. In this talk, I'll discuss how to think about prioritizing tech debt, how to create a business case for your tech debt, and how AI may or may not color any of this.

Topics

staff+
76% senior dev or higher
1:11 speaker ratio
60+ practitioners

QCon London 2026 is a three day conference for senior software engineers, architects and team leads. An international program committee of working engineers selects every session. Patterns and practices, not products and pitches.

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