Causes and Effects of the Presence of Technical Debt in Agile Software Projects

The current software development scenario is characterized by a wide adoption of agile methodologies. Despite its benefits, agile software development (ASD) is also vulnerable to technical debt (TD). In fact, due to its delivery-oriented nature, ASD seems to be more prone to TD accumulation than traditional software development. Although the concept of TD has been increasingly investigated in software engineering, there is a lack of studies regarding TD in ASD. This paper discusses the most common causes and effects of TD in ASD. Through an industrial survey on TD, we compiled the answers of 51 practitioners to identify 43 causes and 30 effects of TD in ASD. This information can support decision-makers on how to deal with TD in agile software development.

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