Exploring the costs of technical debt management –

Authors: Yuepu Guo Rodrigo Oliveira Spínola Carolyn Seaman

Publish Date: 2014/11/30

Volume: 21, Issue: 1, Pages: 159-182

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Abstract

Technical debt is a metaphor for delayed software maintenance tasks Incurring technical debt may bring shortterm benefits to a project but such benefits are often achieved at the cost of extra work in future analogous to paying interest on the debt Currently technical debt is managed implicitly if at all However on large systems it is too easy to lose track of delayed tasks or to misunderstand their impact Therefore we have proposed a new approach to managing technical debt which we believe to be helpful for software managers to make informed decisions In this study we explored the costs of the new approach by tracking the technical debt management activities in an ongoing software project The results from the study provided insights into the impact of technical debt management on software projects In particular we found that there is a significant startup cost when beginning to track and monitor technical debt but the cost of ongoing management soon declines to very reasonable levels

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