Software Industry Perception of Technical Debt and Its Management

Technical debt (TD) expresses the lack of internal quality directly affecting software evolution. Therefore, it has gained the attention of software researchers and practitioners recently. Software researchers have performed empirical studies to observe the perspective of TD in different software cultures and organizations. However, it is important to replicate such studies in more places and with more practitioners to strengthen the perception of TD. In this paper, we present the results of a set of new research questions from an evolved survey design of a survey replication in the Uruguayan software industry to characterize how the software industry professionals understand, perceive, and adopt TD management (TDM) activities. The results allow us to observe that different participant contexts (startups, government, job roles) show different levels of awareness and perception of TD. Details in the form of the adoption of each TDM activity were presented. We could observe some difficulties in conducting some TDM activities that the practitioners consider very important, especially in TDM and monitoring. Differences in specific organizational contexts like startups and government could indicate the need for research efforts in other software engineering communities that meet their specific TD challenges and needs.

Automated summary

Technical debt (TD) refers to the lack of internal quality that directly affects software evolution. This paper presents the results of a survey replication in the Uruguayan software industry, which aims to characterize the understanding, perception, and adoption of TD management (TDM) activities among software industry professionals. The results reveal different levels of awareness and perception of TD among participants from different backgrounds, such as startups, government, and job roles. The findings suggest the need for further research efforts in other software engineering communities to address the specific TD challenges and needs of different organizational contexts.