SAP · Product
Thirty percent of every sprint
Technical debt went from 30 to 40% of every sprint to under 10%.
- under 10%
- Sprint time on technical debt, down from 30 to 40%
- about 50%
- Shorter delivery timelines
- Q2 2023
- Intelligent Returns launched
The problem
When I got to SAP, 30 to 40% of every engineering sprint went to technical debt. There was a hiring freeze coming, and the product had already slipped a year.
What I did
I asked which of the code-migration requirements were truly required. I moved one of six engineering teams onto the roadmap work that mattered most, and narrowed the first release so it could ship.
What changed
Technical debt dropped to under 10% of sprint capacity. Delivery timelines got about 50% shorter. Intelligent Returns launched in Q2 2023, and a task management MVP followed within twelve months, without adding headcount.