# Tech Debt Developer Survey Results 2020 - Impact on Retention

DevFeed: [Tech Debt Developer Survey Results 2020 - Impact on Retention](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/tech-debt-developer-survey-results-2020-impact-on-retention-24986.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://codeahoy.com/2020/02/17/technical-debt-survey/>)

Author: umer

Published: 2020-02-17T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Code Ahoy - Articles](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/code-ahoy-articles.md>)

Topics: [Tech Debt](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/tech-debt.md>), [Software](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software.md>), [coding](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/coding.md>)

Tags: [developer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developer.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/management.md>), [retention](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/retention.md>), [survey](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/survey.md>), [tech-debt](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tech-debt.md>)

## AI overview

This article reports results from a February 2020 survey of 117 software developers about technical debt. It states that 68% worked on products with high or very high technical debt, while 50% were likely or very likely to leave their jobs because of it. The article also describes the survey sample and asks whether management was aware of and addressing technical debt.

## Source excerpt

Last month, I wrote a blog post called Technical Debt is Soul-crushing. In it, I discussed the effects of tech debt on software developers and how it makes them unhappy. I wrote it because, being in management for several years now, I have seen how people discuss tech debt as a product or engineering problem. They completely overlook or ignore its impact on people. For software developers, it is very frustrating to work on a codebase that has a high amount of tech debt. They feel unproductive and handicapped. This creates an atmosphere where people start thinking about leaving and they do soon as they find a better option. Because the blog post was getting good amount of traffic (10k views in a week), I decided to add a survey. The survey is closed and the results are in. 68% of Developers Said They Work on Products with High or Very High Amounts of Tech Debt No large software is tech debt free. At least, I haven't come across one in my life. Some have more, others have less. Not a single person said that their product contains 'No tech debt'. 50% of Developers Are Likely or 'Very Likely' to Leave Their Jobs Because of Tech Debt 27% percent indicated that they think about it, but aren't sure. Question: Is Your Management Aware of Tech Debt and Are They Taking Action to Pay It Off? I asked this question to see if there's a correlation between developer dissatisfaction and management or leadership being aware of the problem and taking action to pay it off. Here are the results. Question: How Long Have You Been Working on the Product with Tech Debt? Here are the results. Survey Methodology 117 software developers from all over the world took the survey. The majority were from the USA, followed by Canada, Australia, Germany, India, Russia , UK and other European countries. The survey ran in February 2020. 91 software developers took the web survey. 26 respondents were from my personal contacts. Senior or Lead software developers mainly from the USA and Canada who use Ja