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

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Ghanbari, H., Besker, T., Martini, A., & Bosch, J. (2017). Looking for Peace of Mind? Manage your (Technical) Debt : An Exploratory Field Study. In ESEM 2017 : ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (pp. 384-393). IEEE Computer Society Press. doi:10.1109/ESEM.2017.53
Authors
Ghanbari, Hadi |
Besker, Terese |
Martini, Antonio |
Bosch, Jan
Date
2017
Discipline
Tietojärjestelmätiede
Copyright
© 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.

 
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. ...
Publisher
IEEE Computer Society Press
Parent publication ISBN
978-1-5090-4039-1
Is part of publication
ESEM 2017 : ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, ISBN 978-1-5090-4039-1
ISSN Search the Publication Forum
1949-3789
Keywords
technical debt morale behavioral software engineering exploratory field study mixed-method thematic analysis software development information systems development
DOI
10.1109/ESEM.2017.53
URI

http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201711244361

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