Technologies to support the technical debt management in software projects : a qualitative research /

Abstract

Technical debt (TD) is a concept related to internal quality attributes in software projects, such as maintainability. Despite an increasing interest in this topic among researchers, studies indicate that the TD management (TDM) by software practitioners from the industry is still incipient. Objective: This work aims to produce a summary of the central concepts related to TD, including technologies currently available to manage the TD. Methods: A survey with practitioners from Brazilian software organizations (BSOs) was conducted to investigate the participants’ knowledge level on TD and TDM, including technologies adopted by practitioners from the industry. Following this study, a quasi-systematic literature review was executed, with the purpose of gathering in the technical literature specific TDM technologies. Results: We observed indications that the general knowledge of the practitioners from BSOs regarding TD and TDM is low, and only a minority of the participants adopt TDM strategies. The results from the studies were synthesized in evidence briefings, onepage documents intended to improve the knowledge transfer between the researchers and the practitioners from the industry. Conclusions: This dissertation contributes with the distribution of a research package to aid in the replication process, if needed, containing the survey plan and the questionnaires used in the research. Moreover, the evidence briefings have a direct application by the practitioners from the industry, as a tool to aid the inclusion of TDM practices in BSOs.