Just like real debt bug debt has an interest penalty. There is the cost of entering the bug, the cost of prioritizing the bug, etc. Often there is also an associated support cost with customers who run across the bug. This can also result in lost income due to returns or failure to buy. In addition there can be the penalty of working around the bug in new code.
The point of this is bug debt is real. Given enough time you can create enough bug debt that you don't have time to work on new features. The interest penalty can take enough time out of your day that eventually you could find yourself working 100% of your time but still have a growing number of bugs.
To calculate your bug debt look at the number of bugs you have assigned to you. Then look at the number of bugs you fix on average for a typical period of time when you are writing new code. Use those numbers to calculate how many weeks it will take you to fix those bugs assuming no new bugs are reported. That is your debt.
I like to keep my debt under 1 month. It is generally impossible to keep it at zero as bugs tend to come in at a fairly constant rate.
Once you have your debt calculated you can also look at the average number of bugs reported and figure out how long it will take to work off your debt.
In the long run keeping your bug debt low will allow you to be more productive and spend more time working on new projects.
Of course if you don't create the bug in the first place that is even better. But that is a subject for another time.
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