Looking for Peace of Mind? Manage your (Technical) Debt : An Exploratory Field Study
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. https://doi.org/10.1109/ESEM.2017.53
Date
2017Copyright
© 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 PressParent publication ISBN
978-1-5090-4039-1Conference
International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and MeasurementIs part of publication
ESEM 2017 : ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and MeasurementISSN Search the Publication Forum
1949-3789Keywords
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/27381744
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