Reduce technical debt in apps — explained step by step

Technical debt is an issue that is ignored in many app projects for a long time — until it suddenly becomes a real problem. Features take longer and longer, bugs are piling up and even small changes feel risky. However, technical debt is not a sign of poor work. They almost necessarily arise when products grow and requirements change.

The decisive question is not whether technical debts arise, but how to deal with them. In this article, we show in a practical way how companies can identify, reduce and avoid technical debts in apps in the long term — step by step.

What is technical debt — and why is it becoming dangerous?

Technical debts arise when compromises are made consciously or unconsciously during development. A quick workaround replaces a clean solution, a feature is delivered without testing, or an architecture decision is never questioned.

This saves time in the short term. In the long term, however, “interest rates” arise, which are reflected, among other things, as follows:

• New features take significantly longer than planned
• Errors occur more frequently and are difficult to reproduce
• Updates (such as new iOS or Android versions) are becoming risky
• Developers completely avoid certain areas of code
  
  

Especially with apps that are being actively developed, this situation can quickly become an impediment to growth.

Typical causes of technical debt in apps

In practice, technical debts can usually be attributed to a few recurring causes.

Product and time pressure
Many debts arise as a result of short-term decisions. A release must be completed, a customer is waiting, the budget is limited. Refactoring is postponed — often without a specific plan as to when it will be rescheduled.

Technology and architecture decisions
Outdated libraries, lack of module separation or too close coupling between frontend and backend make apps difficult to maintain. The fundamental architectural question is particularly relevant here, such as the decision between native development and cross-platform approaches (see also: Native app vs. web app).

Missing processes
Without clear code reviews, automated testing, or a stable CI/CD pipeline, technical debt grows almost automatically — even with experienced teams.

Step 1: Make technical debts visible

The biggest mistake when dealing with technical debt is not to name it explicitly. As long as technical debts only “feel” exist, they can neither be prioritized nor reduced.

A combination of three perspectives has proven effective:

• Code level: Complexity, duplicates, dependencies, lack of testing
• Operation: crash rates, performance issues, support tickets
• Team knowledge: Modules that are considered risky or unpleasant
  
  

This information is used to create a concrete tech debt backlog — ideally structured according to risk, impact and gross effort. In this way, a diffuse problem becomes a predictable task.

Step 2: Prioritize like a product manager

Not every technical fault is equally critical. Trying to fix everything at once usually results in a standstill.

Meaningful prioritization is based on questions such as:

• Is the theme blocking future features?
• Is there a security or stability risk?
• Does it have a direct impact on user experience or revenue?

In this way, measures can be identified that have a rapid effect instead of investing resources in less relevant construction sites.

Step 3: Use Quick Wins to make progress visible

Especially at the beginning, it is important to create trust — within the team and among stakeholders. Quick wins are ideal for this. These include, for example:

• Remove dead code and old feature flags
• Update critical dependencies
• Simplifying particularly error-prone logic
• Stabilize build and deployment processes

These steps immediately reduce risks and create a better basis for major refactorings.

Step 4: Approach refactoring strategically — no big rewrite

Completely rebuilding the app often sounds tempting, but is rarely the best solution. Rewrites are expensive, risky, and significantly delay product progress.

Instead, a step-by-step approach has proven effective:

• Isolate critical modules
• Define clear interfaces
• replace old components gradually

A clean API strategy is particularly important (see also: What is a REST API?) to keep dependencies controllable.

Step 5: Ensuring quality so that no new debts arise

Technical debts can only be reduced sustainably if new ones are not constantly being added. This does not require perfect test coverage, but a realistic minimum:

• automated testing for core functions
• mandatory code reviews
• clear quality checks in the CI/CD pipeline

In this way, problems are identified early and not only during live operation.

Step 6: Plan for technical debt

A common mistake is to want to reduce technical debt “on the side.” In reality, this barely works. Successful teams consciously plan time for this, for example:

• a fixed share per sprint
• separate tasks for technical improvements
• regular maintenance phases
  
  

This makes technical quality part of the product strategy — not a permanent emergency.

Step 7: Define rules to avoid relapses

Clear guidelines help in the long term:

• A clean definition of done
• conscious architectural decisions
• Documentation of important technical decisions

Especially with growing app projects, it is worthwhile to discuss these topics together with an experienced App development agency to structure in order to control technical debts at an early stage.

Conclusion: Technical debt is not a flaw — but a management task

Technical debt cannot be completely avoided. The decisive factor is whether they are ignored or actively managed. Companies that create transparency early on, prioritize and continuously invest benefit from more robust apps, faster releases, and lower long-term costs.

Anyone who reduces technical debts step by step creates the basis for sustainable development — instead of constantly working against their own code base.

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