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Technical Debt Is Killing Digital Transformation, But There Is a Way Out

Aleksandre Asatiani et al.

California Management Review2025https://doi.org/10.1177/00081256251370795article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.37

What the paper says

Digital transformation is important for organizations to stay competitive. Yet, incumbents face challenges from technical debt accrued from legacy information systems. The big bang approach—aiming for a rapid replacement of legacy systems—often falls short. This failure largely results from treating technical debt as a purely technical issue, while overlooking its managerial implications. What is needed is a gradual approach that redefines IT’s role from debt custodian to strategic enabler, focusing on generating business value rather than solely eliminating technical debt. This article offers four recommendations for managers to handle technical debt amid digital transformation.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/00081256251370795

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@article{aleksandre2025,
  title        = {{Technical Debt Is Killing Digital Transformation, But There Is a Way Out}},
  author       = {Aleksandre Asatiani et al.},
  journal      = {California Management Review},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/00081256251370795},
}

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Technical Debt Is Killing Digital Transformation, But There Is a Way Out

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.