When I think about technical debt, I still remember the first application I created that made me realize the consequences of an unsuitable architecture. It happened back in the late 1990s when I was first getting started as a consultant.
The client had requested the use of the Lotus Notes platform to build a procurement system for their customers. Using the Lotus Notes client and a custom application, end-users could make requests that would be tracked by the application and fulfilled by the product owner’s team. In theory, it was a really cool idea – especially since web-developed applications were not prevalent and everyone used Lotus Notes on a daily basis.