The CTO's Cost of Goods Sold

Understanding COGS transformed how I approach sprint planning and roadmap discussions. Instead of treating all work equally, we now evaluate the financial impact of our choices.

I'm standing in front of our C-Suite, watching their faces shift from curiosity to concern as I explain why our latest feature took three sprints instead of one. "We hit some technical debt," I say, the words tasting like cardboard in my mouth. "Had to fix a few critical bugs along the way."

The CFO leans forward. "So what was the actual cost of deliveri…