Investigating how Agile Software Practitioners Repay Technical Debt in Software Projects

Gabriel Soares; Sávio Freire; Nicolli Rios; Boris Pérez; Camilo Castellanos; Darío Correal; Manoel Mendonça; Clemente Izurieta; Carolyn Seaman; Rodrigo Spínola

Gabriel Soares Universidade Salvador https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5965-1084
Sávio Freire Universidade Federal da Bahia / Instituto Federal do Ceará https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3989-9442
Nicolli Rios Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6962-2989
Boris Pérez Universidade Francisco de Paula Santander https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9249-1756
Camilo Castellanos Universidade de Los Andes https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3301-8720
Darío Correal Universidade de Los Andes https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9502-4504
Manoel Mendonça Universidade Federal da Bahia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0874-7665
Clemente Izurieta Montana State University / Idaho National Laboratories http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1002-3906
Carolyn Seaman Universidade de Maryland https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6588-9830
Rodrigo Spínola Virginia Commonwealth University / Universidade de Salvador https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0272-9578

Resumo

Context: The adoption of agile methodologies can bring benefits to software projects, but such methodologies are also prone to technical debt (TD) accumulation. Knowing the practices used for repaying debt items and practice avoidance reasons (PARs) considered for explaining their non-repayment can aid agile practitioners to improve their capacity to manage TD. Aims: To investigate how agile software practitioners repay TD items in software projects. Method: We analyze a data set composed of 179 answers collected through a globally distributed family of industrial surveys on TD. Results: Agile practitioners tend to not repay debt items, mainly for those items that happen very often. The main PARs that explain the non-repayment are focusing on short-term goals, lack of organizational interest, and cost. Conversely, the repayment practices code refactoring, investing effort on TD repayment activities, and investing effort on testing activities are the more commonly used practices for eliminating debt items. We organize all this information in TD repayment boards. Conclusion: TD repayment in agile software projects is still far from ideal. The set of practices and PARs, and the boards can support practitioners in sharing their experiences in TD repayment.

Palavras-chave: Technical debt, technical debt repayment, agile software projects