A client’s team spent a full week adding a CSV export to their admin panel. Two engineers, clear requirements, maybe a day of actual work. The rest of the time went to understanding existing code well enough to change it safely. That’s what I call codebase drag: when the codebase makes every task take longer than it should. It doesn’t show up in any dashboard or sprint report.


It’s usually because the engineers were rushed to deliver completely new features because the sales department over promised again.
Dysfunctional engineering teams, that have no empathy for end users is an issue as well.
It is almost always that.