Managing technical debt in software-reliant systems

Nanette Brown, Yuanfang Cai, Yuepu Guo, Rick Kazman, Miryung Kim, Philippe Kruchten, Erin Lim, Alan MacCormack, Robert Nord, Ipek Ozkaya, Raghvinder Sangwan, Carolyn Seaman, Kevin Sullivan, Nico Zazworka

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

299 Scopus citations

Abstract

Delivering increasingly complex software-reliant systems demands better ways to manage the long-term effects of shortterm expedients. The technical debt metaphor is gaining significant traction in the agile development community as a way to understand and communicate such issues. The idea is that developers sometimes accept compromises in a system in one dimension (e.g., modularity) to meet an urgent demand in some other dimension (e.g., a deadline), and that such compromises incur a "debt": on which "interest" has to be paid and which the "principal" should be repaid at some point for the long-term health of the project. We argue that the software engineering research community has an opportunity to study and improve this concept. We can offer software engineers a foundation for managing such trade-offs based on models of their economic impacts. Therefore, we propose managing technical debt as a part of the future research agenda for the software engineering field.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the FSE/SDP Workshop on the Future of Software Engineering Research, FoSER 2010
Pages47-51
Number of pages5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
EventFSE/SDP Workshop on the Future of Software Engineering Research, FoSER 2010 - Santa Fe, NM, United States
Duration: Nov 7 2010Nov 11 2010

Publication series

NameProceedings of the FSE/SDP Workshop on the Future of Software Engineering Research, FoSER 2010

Other

OtherFSE/SDP Workshop on the Future of Software Engineering Research, FoSER 2010
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySanta Fe, NM
Period11/7/1011/11/10

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software

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