The Sources and Approaches to Management of Technical Debt: A Case Study of Two Product Lines in a Middle-Size Finnish Software Company

Yli-Huumo, Jesse; Maglyas, Andrey; Smolander, Kari

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-13835-0_7

Cited by 34 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In addition, during our literature search, we found four articles that mention the influence of TD on developers' emotions [4,24,26].…”

Section: Technical Debt and Moralementioning

confidence: 99%

“…By reviewing previous literature on TD, we could find only a limited number of previous studies mentioning that TD may influence developers' emotions [4,5,24,26] and morale [6][7][8]25]. Therefore, we decided to conduct a field study to explore the potential impacts of TD, and its management, on developers' morale.…”

Section: B Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an exploratory field study and based on interviews with 35 software developers, Lim et al [24] suggest that software developers have a negative attitude toward TD since they have a tendency to create "perfect software". The results of another case study conducted in a Finnish software company [4] show that software developers do not feel good about taking TD since they have to deal with it in future. Finally, Peters [26] suggests that the presence of TD has a negative influence on developers' motivation.…”

Section: B Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, understanding and explaining, the role of individual developers in the occurrence of TD as well as the consequences of TD for them has received minimal attention in the literature. In recent years, several studies have suggested that TD has a negative influence on developers' emotions and affects [4][5][6] and their morale [7,8]. However, none of these previous studies specifically focuses on investigating and explaining the relationship between TD and developers' morale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, some studies suggest that developers do not feel comfortable about taking on TD [4,5] and it lowers their motivation [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Looking for Peace of Mind? Manage Your (Technical) Debt: An Exploratory Field Study

Ghanbari

Besker

Martini

et al. 2017

2017 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM)

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Abstract-Background: In the last two decades Technical Debt (TD) has received a considerable amount of attention from software engineering research and practice. Recently, a small group of studies suggests that, in addition to its technical and economic consequences, TD can affect developers' psychological states and morale. However, until now there has been a lack of empirical research clarifying such influences. Aims: In this study, we aim at taking the first step in filling this gap by investigating the potential impacts of TD and its management on developers' morale. Method: Drawing from previous literature on morale, we decided to explore the influence of TD and its management on three dimensions of morale called affective, future/goal, and interpersonal antecedents. In so doing, we conducted an exploratory field study and collected data from software professionals active in different industrial domains through eight qualitative interviews and an online survey (n=33). Results: Our results indicate that TD mainly has a negative influence on future/goal and affective antecedents of morale. This is mainly because the occurrence of TD hinders developers from performing their tasks and achieving their goals. TD management, on the other hand, has a positive influence on all the three dimensions of morale since it is associated with positive feelings and interpersonal feedback as well as a sense of progress. Conclusions: According to the results of this empirical study, the occurrence of TD reduces developers' morale, while its management increases developers' morale.

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“…In addition, during our literature search, we found four articles that mention the influence of TD on developers' emotions [4,24,26].…”

Section: Technical Debt and Moralementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, some studies suggest that developers do not feel comfortable about taking on TD [4,5] and it lowers their motivation [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Looking for Peace of Mind? Manage Your (Technical) Debt: An Exploratory Field Study

Ghanbari

Besker

Martini

et al. 2017

2017 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM)

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An empirical assessment of technical debt practices in industry

Codabux

Williams

Bradshaw

et al. 2017

J Software Evolu Process

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Context Technical debt refers to the consequences of taking shortcuts when developing software. These consequences can impede the software growth and have financial implications. The software engineering research community needs to explore technical debt further from a practitioner standpoint. Objective This study gathers insights from practitioners on key components of technical debt such as its definition, characterization, consequences, benefits, and how it is communicated. Method We conducted semi‐structured interviews with a convenience sample of 17 practitioners and a survey of 67 participants. Results Despite the lack of consensus, we identified the most commonly accepted definition, method to measure technical debt (as person hours), and method to reduce debt (by allocating time in iterations to address the debt). Defects were also identified as type of debt and the cost of technical debt is more than the cost to make changes to source code. Three distinct company profiles emerged. Conclusion Despite increasing research on technical debt, the field lacks consensus on its many facets. One interesting outcome of this study is how to assess the risks of technical debt by evaluating liabilities beyond costs of directly handling debt.

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The Relationship Between Business Model Experimentation and Technical Debt

Yli-Huumo

Rissanen

Maglyas

et al. 2015

Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing

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Abstract. The use of lean software development methodology and business model experimentation has become popular in software companies in recent years. Business model experimentation is used to validate assumptions made on a product from real customers before the actual product is created. A minimum viable product is used to test the business model by gathering and measuring customer feedback. However, in many cases creating a minimum viable product requires the development team to take shortcuts and workarounds in the product. This phenomenon in software development is called 'technical debt', where companies trade long-term software quality to short-term gain in time-tomarket. We investigated four software companies and conducted nine interviews to understand the relationship between business model experimentation and technical debt. The goal was to study how business model experimentation is affecting to technical debt. The results showed that business model experimentation has a clear relationship to technical debt.

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The Sources and Approaches to Management of Technical Debt: A Case Study of Two Product Lines in a Middle-Size Finnish Software Company

Cited by 34 publications

References 22 publications

Looking for Peace of Mind? Manage Your (Technical) Debt: An Exploratory Field Study

Looking for Peace of Mind? Manage Your (Technical) Debt: An Exploratory Field Study

An empirical assessment of technical debt practices in industry

The Relationship Between Business Model Experimentation and Technical Debt

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