Technical Debt is a metaphor that has, in recent years, helped developers to think about and to monitor software quality. The metaphor refers to flaws in software (usually caused by shortcuts to save time) that may affect future maintenance and evolution. We conducted an empirical study in an academic environment, nine teams of graduate and undergraduate students during two offerings of a laboratory course on Extreme Programming (XP Lab). The teams had a comprehensive lecture about several alternative ways to identify and manage Technical Debt. We monitored the teams, performed interviews, did close observations and collected feedbacks. The results show that awareness of Technical Debt influences team behavior. Team members report about thinking and discussing more about software quality after becoming aware of Technical Debt in their projects.
Graziela Simone Tonin, Alfredo Goldman, Carolyn Seaman and Diogo Pina
