Looking for Peace of Mind? Manage your (Technical) Debt : An Exploratory Field Study
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.
Main Authors
Format
Conferences
Conference paper
Published
2017
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
IEEE Computer Society Press
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201711244361Use this for linking
Parent publication ISBN
978-1-5090-4039-1
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1949-3789
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/ESEM.2017.53
Conference
International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
Language
English
Is part of publication
ESEM 2017 : ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement
Citation
- 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
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