Solution · Modernization
Tech Debt Paydown
Make the scary parts of your codebase safe to change.
An honest evaluation of where your codebase is weakest, a real plan to pay it down, and a senior-led team working alongside yours so you keep deploying while the debt comes down.
At a glance
- Practice
- Modernization
- Engagement
- Assessment and paired paydown
- Commitment
- Scoped to the plan
- Best suited for
- A codebase that fights your team on every change.
Is this you?
There are parts of the code no one will touch — even our AI tools are useless in there.
That sentence is the problem this engagement exists to solve — one problem, solved end to end, not a program that promises everything.
How it usually shows up
- Simple changes routinely ripple into six other places
- Test coverage too thin to refactor with confidence
- AI coding tools help everywhere except your core
The engagement
What we do.
Tech Debt Paydown starts with an evaluation of your existing codebase: where it is weakest, where the debt is most expensive, and where paying it down will free your team the most.
From there we build a paydown plan and work alongside your teams to execute it. Because our team and yours work together, you can continue to deploy and pay down the debt at the same time rather than choosing between them.
There's a second payoff: the same characterization tests, documentation, and clean seams that make the code safe for your engineers make it usable by AI tools. Teams that watched their AI rollout stall in legacy code get their leverage back without buying anything new.
The shift
Debt you can't touch caps every team that works near it. We stabilize the scary parts first, so humans and agents can finally work there.
What’s included
What you keep.
Named deliverables, not a statement of intent. Every one is built with your team so it stays useful after we leave.
- Nº 01
Codebase assessment
A clear-eyed evaluation of the existing codebase and the debt that is actually costing you velocity.
- Nº 02
Weak-point map
The specific areas where debt is most expensive, prioritized by the leverage of fixing them.
- Nº 03
Paydown plan
A sequenced plan that pays down debt incrementally, without a big-bang rewrite.
- Nº 04
Paired execution
Our team works alongside yours, so you keep deploying while the debt comes down.
The team model
Your engineers join our team.
This is the mechanism behind “the capability stays” — not a handoff meeting at the end, but how the team is shaped from day one. Every engagement runs on it.
- Nº 01
Day one
A senior-led Sigao team arrives with the process and the platform. Your engineers don't get displaced — they get invited in.
- Nº 02
In flight
Your engineers join our team — not the other way around. One Engagement Lead owns scope and quality, and everything is built in the open on your stack.
- Nº 03
After handoff
Because your people co-built the work, they keep running it. The specs, patterns, and operating rhythm stay. The lift outlasts the engagement.
The approach
How we run it.
- Nº 01
Assess
Evaluate the codebase and find the weak points worth the most.
- Nº 02
Plan
Sequence a paydown that fits around live delivery.
- Nº 03
Pay down
Execute alongside your teams while deployment continues.
- Nº 04
Verify
Confirm the debt is down and the system is easier to change.
What changes
The shape of the outcome.
- Starts with
- An honest assessment
- Runs
- Alongside live delivery
- Result
- A codebase that yields
Related solutions
Often paired with.
- ModernizationFlagship
The codebase fights us on every change, and competitors who started later are shipping faster.
AI-Ready Modernization
Rewrite what's holding you back — without freezing the roadmap.
Scoped to the systemHow it works - Development
A deliverable with a hard date is slipping, and hiring won't close the gap in time.
Roadmap Acceleration
Hit the dates already on your roadmap.
Scoped to the initiativeHow it works - Transformation
The board wants an AI ROI number, and I can't defend the spend.
AI Value Proof
Prove what AI is worth — in numbers a board accepts.
3–8 weeksHow it works
Insights
Our thinking on this work.
Modernization·6 minYour tech debt is a loan. Do you know the interest rate?
“The codebase is a mess” has never been funded. A dollar figure has. How to compute the annual interest you're paying on technical debt, and the one-page dashboard that keeps the paydown funded once you get it.
McCaul Baggett
Modernization·6 minStop ranking tech debt by annoyance. Score it like a portfolio.
Most tech debt backlogs are ranked by whoever complained loudest. Gartner's PAID model replaces that with three scores a CFO will accept, and it changes the funding conversation.
McCaul Baggett
Operating model·5 minWhy your legacy stack is the real blocker to AI leverage
You don't have an AI tooling problem. You have a systems problem. The fastest agent in the world still moves at the speed of the codebase it's editing.
McCaul Baggett
Free · Technical Debt Cost Calculator
Put a dollar figure on the debt first.
Eight estimates you already know become the annual interest you're paying on your technical debt — everyday drag, debt-driven incidents, and attrition — with a risk band, a three-year compounding view, and a board-ready PDF brief.
What you get
- i.Your annual debt interest, in dollars and as a share of engineering spend
- ii.The do-nothing vs. funded-paydown comparison a CFO actually weighs
- iii.A PDF brief written for the funding conversation — yours either way
Prefer to talk first
Or put real edges around Tech Debt Paydown.
A conversation to understand the work, the constraints, and the shape this engagement should take for your team. If it’s not the right fit, we’ll say so.