Stop Calling IT Debt - It's A Liability
Forrester, Monday, April 6th, 2026
Enterprise IT runs on billions of dollars of implicit risk, yet most organizations still manage it with deterministic spreadsheets and gut‑feel prioritization. Murray Cantor - PhD mathematician, defense systems architect, and veteran of IBM's most successful high‑risk projects - thinks there's a better way.
Over three conversations in the fall of 2025, we talked about technical debt, uncertainty, and why IT investment decisions deserve better economics. What follows is drawn from those conversations, thematically arranged and lightly edited for clarity.
Managing Uncertainty, Not Optics
I first met Murray at a lean software gathering over a decade ago. At the time, I didn't fully appreciate his background. Over our recent conversations, I got a fuller picture.