The influence of Technical Debt on software developer morale

Besker, Terese; Ghanbari, Hadi; Martini, Antonio; Bosch, Jan

doi:10.1016/j.jss.2020.110586

Cited by 34 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…Our findings, by themselves, constitute a compelling case, but do not stand alone. Although the human aspect is still a deficit area in the TD research, the combined results of Besker et al (2020), Spínola et al (2013), Lim et al (2012), Yli-Huumo et al (2014, and Tom et al (2013)-many of which are corroborated by this paper-provide convincing grounds for our argument. Hence, we call for the research community to expand on the conceptual model of TD (Avgeriou et al 2016).…”

Section: Implication For Research and Industrysupporting

confidence: 75%

“…A negative correlation was proposed early by Tom et al (2013) based on anecdotal evidence found in web blogs. Since then, empirical investigations have corroborated the connection, including previous articles of our own, see (Besker et al 2020). Spínola et al (2013) performed a survey on TD folklore and found medium to high consensus among software practitioners that TD is related to their morale.…”

Section: Interdisciplinary Research On Td and Human Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…Our previous paper on the relationship between TD and morale, Besker et al (2020), found that TD negatively impacts morale, but also that morale is increased by proper TD management. These results are corroborated by F13, F16, F17, and F22; and F15 and F19, respectively.…”

Section: Comparison To Related Workmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Spínola et al (2013) performed a survey on TD folklore and found medium to high consensus among software practitioners that TD is related to their morale. In conjunction with interviews, a survey was also carried out by Besker et al (2020) to determine how occurrence and management of TD affect developers' morale. Their findings show that the existence of TD negatively impacts morale, but also that morale is increased by proper TD management.…”

Section: Interdisciplinary Research On Td and Human Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…researchers sometimes neglect to factor in human aspects (Lenberg et al 2015). So, too, is the case for technical debt research (except for a handful of studies on morale, e.g., (Besker et al 2020)). This paper intends to amend this deficit and provide evidence showing that technical debt has noticeable adverse effects on software practitioners' feelings.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Measuring affective states from technical debt

et al. 2021

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Context Software engineering is a human activity. Despite this, human aspects are under-represented in technical debt research, perhaps because they are challenging to evaluate. Objective This study’s objective was to investigate the relationship between technical debt and affective states (feelings, emotions, and moods) from software practitioners. Method Forty participants (N = 40) from twelve companies took part in a mixed-methods approach, consisting of a repeated-measures (r = 5) experiment (n = 200), a survey, and semi-structured interviews. From the qualitative data, it is clear that technical debt activates a substantial portion of the emotional spectrum and is psychologically taxing. Further, the practitioners’ reactions to technical debt appear to fall in different levels of maturity. Results The statistical analysis shows that different design smells (strong indicators of technical debt) negatively or positively impact affective states. Conclusions We argue that human aspects in technical debt are important factors to consider, as they may result in, e.g., procrastination, apprehension, and burnout.

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Section: Implication For Research and Industrysupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Interdisciplinary Research On Td and Human Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Comparison To Related Workmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Interdisciplinary Research On Td and Human Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Measuring affective states from technical debt

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Qualitative software engineering research: Reflections and guidelines

Lenberg,

Feldt,

Gren

et al. 2023

J Software Evolu Process

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Researchers are increasingly recognizing the importance of human aspects in software development. Because qualitative methods are used to explore human behavior in‐depth, we believe that studies using such methods will become more common. Existing qualitative software engineering guidelines do not cover the full breadth of qualitative methods and the knowledge on how to use them like in social sciences. The purpose of this study was to extend the software engineering community's current body of knowledge regarding available qualitative methods and their quality assurance frameworks and to provide recommendations and guidelines for their use. With the support of an epistemological argument and a survey of the literature, we suggest that future research would benefit from (1) utilizing a broader set of research methods, (2) more strongly emphasizing reflexivity, and (3) employing qualitative guidelines and quality criteria. We present an overview of three qualitative methods commonly used in social sciences but rarely seen in software engineering research, namely interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis. Furthermore, we discuss the meaning of reflexivity in relation to the software engineering context and suggest means of fostering it. Our paper will help software engineering researchers better select and then guide the application of a broader set of qualitative research methods.

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