Multivocal Literature Review on Non-Technical Debt in Software Development: An Exploratory Study
2023 (English)In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering, ENASE / [ed] Hermann Kaindl, Mike Mannion, Leszek Maciaszek, SciTePress, 2023, Vol. 2023-April, p. 89-101Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
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.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
SciTePress, 2023. Vol. 2023-April, p. 89-101
Keywords [en]
Information use, Literature reviews, Multivocal literature review, Non-technical debt, Organisational, Organizational debt, People debt, Process debt, Social debt, Systematic Review, Technical debts, Software design
National Category
Software Engineering Information Systems, Social aspects
Research subject
Computer Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-95205DOI: 10.5220/0011772300003464Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85160542501ISBN: 978-989-758-647-7 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-95205DiVA, id: diva2:1766334
Conference
18th International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering, Prague,Czech Republic, April 24-24, 2023.
Funder
Knowledge Foundation2023-06-122023-06-122023-06-12Bibliographically approved