What should a Product Owner do if technical debt impacts the team's ability to deliver new features?

The correct approach in this scenario is to reevaluate and prioritize debt reduction efforts. Technical debt refers to the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easier solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer. When this debt starts impacting the team's ability to deliver new features, it indicates that it cannot be overlooked any longer.

Prioritizing debt reduction allows the Product Owner to address the root problem that is hindering the team's performance. By prioritizing this within the product backlog, the team can allocate time and resources to reduce technical debt, which ultimately leads to a more sustainable development process and improves the quality of new features.

Additionally, addressing technical debt can result in better code quality, easier maintenance, and quicker development of future features as the team spends less time managing the complications caused by previous shortcuts. This proactive approach aligns with the Agile principles of continuous improvement and delivering value to stakeholders.

In contrast, ignoring the debt until the product is completed can lead to increasing challenges and potentially insurmountable issues that could prevent successful project completion. Simply increasing the development team’s size may not effectively resolve technical debt and could introduce additional coordination challenges without addressing the underlying problems. Lastly, expanding the product’s scope does not address the existing issues caused by