Dark debt

Dark debt is a form of technical debt that is invisible until it causes failures. The term was coined in the STELLA conference and codified in the conference report.

Dark debt is found in complex systems and the anomalies it generates are complex system failures. Dark debt is not recognizable at the time of creation. " It arises from the unforeseen interactions of hardware or software with other parts of the framework. "

The challenge of dark debt is a difficult one. Because it exists mainly in interactions between pieces of the complex system, it cannot be appreciated by examination of those pieces. "
Unlike technical debt, which can be detected and, in principle at least, corrected by refactoring, dark debt surfaces through anomalies. Spectacular failures like those listed above do not arise from technical debt.

Complexity posts:

• Fault-tolerant systems are faulty
• Obscuring complexity
• Striving for simplicity, arriving at complexity
• Confusing familiar with simple
• Compound complexity