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Job satisfaction at risk: Measuring the role of process debt in agile software development
Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Karlstad Business School (from 2013).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1512-6592
Karlstad University, Faculty of Health, Science and Technology (starting 2013), Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (from 2013).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7885-0369
University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
2025 (English)In: Journal of Systems and Software, ISSN 0164-1212, E-ISSN 1873-1228, Vol. 222, article id 112350Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Process debt (PD) in agile software development represents inefficiencies that undermine team performance and job satisfaction. This study investigates the quantitative impact of PD on job satisfaction within agile teams, surveying 191 participants from two software development organizations. Our research examines five PD types: Process Unsuitability, Roles Debt, Synchronization Debt, Documentation Debt, and Infrastructure Debt. Using multiple regression analysis, our model explains approximately 33.8 % of the variance in job satisfaction. Among the five PD types, Process Unsuitability and Roles Debt emerged as statistically significant predictors of reduced job satisfaction. These findings indicate that certain forms of PD have a measurable negative impact on developers’ perceptions of their work environment. By identifying which PD types most strongly influence job satisfaction, this research offers empirically grounded insights that can inform targeted interventions. Understanding and addressing the most impactful PD categories may help organizations refine agile processes, thereby mitigating the detrimental effects of process inefficiencies on job satisfaction. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2025. Vol. 222, article id 112350
Keywords [en]
Agile process, Agile software development, Agile teams, Multiple regression analysis, Process debt, Software development organizations, Survey development, Team performance, Technical debts, Work environments
National Category
Software Engineering Business Administration
Research subject
Information Systems; Computer Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-103363DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112350ISI: 001414627300001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85215538879OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-103363DiVA, id: diva2:1939819
Funder
Knowledge FoundationAvailable from: 2025-02-24 Created: 2025-02-24 Last updated: 2025-02-24Bibliographically approved

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Gustavsson, TomasAhmad, Muhammad Ovais

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