Software development encompasses various factors beyond technical considerations. Neglecting non-technical elements like individuals, processes, culture, and social and organizational aspects can lead to debt-like characteristics that demand attention. Therefore, we introduce the non-technical debt (NTD) concept to encompass and explore these aspects. This indicates the applicability of the debt analogy to non-technical facets of software development. Technical debt (TD) and NTD share similarities and often arise from risky decision-making processes, impacting both software development professionals and software quality. Overlooking either type of debt can lead to significant implications for software development success. The current study conducts a comprehensive multivocal literature review (MLR) to explore the most recent research on NTD, its causes, and potential mitigation strategies. For analysis, we carefully selected 40 primary studies among 110 records published until October 1, 2022. The study investigates the factors contributing to the accumulation of NTD in software development and proposes strategies to alleviate the adverse effects associated with it. This MLR offers a contemporary overview and identifies prospects for further investigation, making a valuable contribution to the field. The findings of this research highlight that NTD's impacts extend beyond monetary aspects, setting it apart from TD. Furthermore, the findings reveal that rectifying NTD is more challenging than addressing TD, and its consequences contribute to the accumulation of TD. To avert software project failures, a comprehensive approach that addresses NTD and TD concurrently is crucial. Effective communication and coordination play a vital role in mitigating NTD, and the study proposes utilizing the 3C model as a recommended framework to tackle NTD concerns.

Background: Agile methodologies emphasise iterative development, customer collaboration, and flexibility in software development. However, challenges arise when agile practices are adoptedin larger projects. Process inefficiencies and redundancies, knownas process debt, result from the compounded complexities of expanding agile processes and workflows. However, strategies tounderstand and tackle it remain markedly inadequate.Aims: This study investigates process debt types, causes, andeffects in large-scale agile development and its connection withtechnical debt.Method: In this case study, we conducted fifteen semi-structuredinterviews with a Nordic IT company, primarily focusing on telecomrelated products like 5G secure solutions, testing tools, and basestation software. We performed a thematic analysis to examine thedata qualitatively.Results: The thematic analysis identified five process debt typeswith 28 sub-types: documentation (3), roles & responsibilities (5),synchronization (5), inefficiency & unsuitability (12), and infrastructure debt (3) identified causes and effects of process debt andidentified the correlation of process debt to technical debt based ondescriptions from interview data and researchers’ insights.Conclusions: Process debt, stemming from flawed agile practices in large-scale development, causes inefficiencies, reduces quality, and extends timelines, risking technical debt. Its managementis essential for the success of these projects

Agile methodologies have emerged as transformative paradigms in the ever-evolving software development landscape, emphasizing iterative development, customer collaboration, and adaptability. As the scope and complexity of projects and organizations expand, applying agile principles within the context of Large-Scale Agile Development (LSAD) encounters distinctive challenges. The majority of challenges encountered in LSAD, technical and non-technical, are attributed to the accrual of social debt. However, a conspicuous gap remains in understanding and addressing social debt in LSAD. This study aims to fill this void by investigating social debt in LSAD through an in-depth industrial case study with a leading Nordic company specializing in telecommunications software and services and focusing on producing secure 5G network solutions. The study investigates the causes of LSAD's social debt and examines its impacts on secure 5G telecom software development. By addressing these objectives, this research sheds light on a critical aspect of LSAD's social debt, caused by 3C challenges(communication, coordination and collaboration), social confines challenges, community smells challenges, and organisational social challenges in the telecom sector that have been underrepresented in the existing literature.

Psychological safety, a pivotal factor in team dynamics, has been proposed as a crucial determinant of success in agile software development (ASD) teams and learning. However, the extent of its influence within the domain of large-scale agile (LSA) software development teams remains underexplored. This research investigates the multifaceted dimensions of psychological safety within LSA teams, examining both its precursors and outcomes. This study conducted semi-structured interviews with software professionals actively involved in LSA projects within a Swedish software consultancy company. The findings underscore the intricate nature of establishing a psychologically safe environment within LSA teams, revealing it as a multidimensional construct necessitating a proactive leadership approach, fostering open communication, and cultivating an ecosystem of constructive feedback. The study highlights the critical importance of intentionally shaping teams to facilitate continuous learning, ensuring remuneration safety, and implementing a comprehensive onboarding process for incoming team members. By fostering psychologically safe settings, LSA teams enhanced teamwork dynamics, heightened job satisfaction, and facilitation continuous learning and development. Notably, the absence of such an environment exacerbates the phenomenon of brain drain, exposing the tangible consequences of overlooking this fundamental aspect of organizational culture. This study proposes avenues for future research directions, aiming to further unravel the nuances of psychological safety and its cascading effects within the realm of contemporary LSA software development context.

In software engineering, technical debt (TD) has been widely investigated, but debt regarding social issues, people, and processes has not been explored as much. It should be noted here that we use nontechnical debt (NTD) as an umbrella term to cover social, process, and people debts. Although the number of studies on NTD in software is increasing, the majority of them are descriptive rather than rigorous, and there is no systematic development of cumulative knowledge. As a result, identifying the fundamental causes of NTD and the associated mitigation techniques in software engineering is challenging. Therefore, this study investigates the scientific evidence regarding NTD till date by conducting a systematic mapping review of software engineering research between January 2000 and October 2021. The search strategy resulted in 175 studies, 17 of which were identified as unique and relevant primary papers. The primary studies show that NTD and TD are inextricably linked. In addition, this study also captured a plethora of causes and mitigation strategies for managing NTD and thus makes four important contributions: (i) highlighting state-of-the-art NTD research; (ii) identification of the reported causes and mitigation strategies in the primary papers; and (iii) determination of opportunities for future NTD research.

This paper presents the design of a tool for recurring quantitative self-assessment of IT Service Management (ITSM) process maturity in a financial institution implementing agile software development as a new way of working. This change brought on an increased need to monitor ITSM process performance, and a Design Science Research (DSR) project was launched to create an ITSM maturity assessment tool. Continual improvement of ITSM processes can be measured by performing a process maturity assessment, comparing the organization’s process performance against a best-practice reference set of processes. This paper reports a development project for a quantitative measuring survey-based tool. Due to the increasing use of agile methods, there is an increase in research attention to the coexistence of agile and ITSM maturity assessment tools. The results show that a company-wide ITSM process maturity assessment can be established as a survey-based self-assessment in an agile software development context. The aggregate scores from this self-assessment present a good indicator of the organization’s process performance, especially when complemented by a reference score. A key learning is that the iterative DSR methodology made it possible to create a tool that in good way measure ITSM process maturity in an agile context. 

This research paper examines the implementation and impact of customised roles in large-scale agile software development teams, specifically within the Scrum framework. This is a single case study based on 15 practitioners’ interviews from a Swedish software company to review the dynamics of role customisation. The two customised roles of Product Guardians and Security Masters are crucial for addressing complex secure software development, maintaining product quality and security, and fostering team self-organisation. The study also uncovers challenges associated with role customisation, such as the potential overburdening of individuals and disruption of self-organisation. The findings contribute to the discourse on agile methods' adaptability and provide practical insights for organisations considering similar role customisations. Furthermore, the research opens the door for future exploration of organization-wide roles that promote self-organisation.

We conducted a case study to examine the challenges encountered in large-scale agile development (LSAD) within two Swedish software companies. While agile methodologies have proven successful in small and medium-sized projects, their implementation in large-scale software development projects can be problematic. To identify these challenges, we employed thematic analysis, which revealed a total of 26 distinct challenges. These challenges were categorized into three main themes: Processes and practices, Teams, and Organizational-level challenges in LSAD. By recognizing and addressing these challenges, projects operating in similar contexts can synchronize their activities and harness the advantages of agile methodologies at a large scale. The article delves into comprehensive discussions on these challenges, offering valuable insights and directions for future research endeavors.

Earlier research has focused on technical debt (TD). While numerous issues connected to non-technical aspects of software development (SD) that are equally worthy of”debt” status are neglected. Simultaneously, these types of debts regularly develop significant challenges to be addressed, demonstrating that the debt metaphor may be used to reason about elements other than technical ones. It motivates us to create the new umbrella term”Non-Technical Debt” (NTD) to investigate people, processes, culture, social, and organizational concerns under its cover. All types of debt are similar in some ways, and they are often caused by making risky decisions. Therefore, ignoring any one dimension of debt can have severe consequences on the successful completion of SD projects. This study investigates recent literature on the current state of knowledge about NTD, its causes, and mitigation strategies. By using a thematic analysis approach, we found five NTD types (i.e., people, process, culture, social, and organizational). We further identified their accumulation causes and discussed remedies for mitigation. 

Large-scale agile frameworks suggest several practices for coordination between teams in software development projects. These prescribed coordination practices are often described as how to be performed in detail but without explaining the intended impacts. At the same time, agile values emphasise the need for tailoring practices that are not helpful. This study examines how three agile coordination practices influence accountability, predictability, and common understanding, which are important conditions for coordination. A qualitative research strategy was used to investigate three case organisations that implemented the scaled agile framework (SAFe): one bank, one government agency, and one department within the automotive industry. The empirical data consists of 28 semi-structured interviews and observations. The findings show the differing impacts of three investigated agile coordination practices and how the tailoring of practices affects coordination.