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A Practical Guide for Establishing a Technical Debt Management Process (Preprint)

Marion Wiese, Kamila Serwa, Eva Bittner

TL;DR

The TDM approaches used by all teams were identified and used as a starting point for best practices, and issue tracking system vendors should implement TD issue types employing the identified attributes.

Abstract

Context. Technical Debt (TD) refers to short-term beneficial software solutions that impede future changes, making TD management essential. However, establishing a TD management (TDM) process is one of the most pressing concerns in practice. Goal. We plan to identify which previously researched TDM approaches are feasible in practice and what typical challenges emerge to create a guideline for establishing a TDM process. Method. We replicated our previously published action research study by conducting five workshops introducing TDM with two teams from different companies. To determine the feasibility of TDM approaches, we presented the teams with approaches for various TD activities and let them decide which to adopt. Overall, we conducted 19 workshops and retrospectives, analyzing 108 meetings (96 hours) over a 30-month period. Results. The adopted TD prevention strategies and documentation were similar in all teams. The teams utilized their respective backlogs and created a new backlog item type for TD, incorporating similar attributes such as interest, contagiousness, a resubmission date, and reminders to discuss drawbacks and risks. However, they used different prioritization approaches and deviating repayment methods. The teams had to overcome similar challenges during the establishment, which we list in this paper. Conclusions. We identified the TDM approaches used by all teams as a starting point for best practices. For challenges, we provided solutions or identified them as research gaps. Issue tracking system vendors should implement TD issue types employing the identified attributes. Finally, we created a white paper for practitioners to establish a TDM process based on our results.

A Practical Guide for Establishing a Technical Debt Management Process (Preprint)

TL;DR

The TDM approaches used by all teams were identified and used as a starting point for best practices, and issue tracking system vendors should implement TD issue types employing the identified attributes.

Abstract

Context. Technical Debt (TD) refers to short-term beneficial software solutions that impede future changes, making TD management essential. However, establishing a TD management (TDM) process is one of the most pressing concerns in practice. Goal. We plan to identify which previously researched TDM approaches are feasible in practice and what typical challenges emerge to create a guideline for establishing a TDM process. Method. We replicated our previously published action research study by conducting five workshops introducing TDM with two teams from different companies. To determine the feasibility of TDM approaches, we presented the teams with approaches for various TD activities and let them decide which to adopt. Overall, we conducted 19 workshops and retrospectives, analyzing 108 meetings (96 hours) over a 30-month period. Results. The adopted TD prevention strategies and documentation were similar in all teams. The teams utilized their respective backlogs and created a new backlog item type for TD, incorporating similar attributes such as interest, contagiousness, a resubmission date, and reminders to discuss drawbacks and risks. However, they used different prioritization approaches and deviating repayment methods. The teams had to overcome similar challenges during the establishment, which we list in this paper. Conclusions. We identified the TDM approaches used by all teams as a starting point for best practices. For challenges, we provided solutions or identified them as research gaps. Issue tracking system vendors should implement TD issue types employing the identified attributes. Finally, we created a white paper for practitioners to establish a TDM process based on our results.
Paper Structure (38 sections, 2 figures, 7 tables)

This paper contains 38 sections, 2 figures, 7 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. METHOD
  3. Action Research
  4. Case Companies and Participants
  5. Workshops
  6. Meetings
  7. Data collection
  8. Action Research
  9. TD-SAGAT -- Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique
  10. Observations
  11. Workshop Questionnaires
  12. Data Analysis
  13. Adopted Approaches (RQ1)
  14. Emerging Challenges (RQ2)
  15. Effects on TD Awareness (RQ3)
  16. ...and 23 more sections

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: Study design presenting the action cycles wiese_establishing_2026: The workshops are presented in the left grey area and include learning, diagnosing, and action planning. The main actions taken and evaluation between the workshops are shown in the right grey area.
  • Figure 2: Prerequisites' results measured by a survey, TD-SAGAT surveys, and observations between the workshops (WS)