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Architectural Technical Debt: A Grounded Theory

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Software Architecture (ECSA 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 12292))

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Abstract

Architectural technical debt in a software-intensive system is driven by design decisions about its structure, frameworks, technologies, languages, etc. Unlike code-level technical debt, which can be readily detected by static analysers, and can often be refactored with minimal efforts, architectural debt is hard to detect, and its remediation is wide-ranging, daunting, and often avoided. The objective of this study is to develop a better understanding of how software development organisations conceptualize their architectural debt, and how they deal with it, if at all. We used a grounded theory method, eliciting qualitative data from software architects and senior technical staff from a wide range of software development organizations. The result of the study, i.e., the theory emerging from the collected data, constitutes an encompassing conceptual theory of architectural debt, identifying and relating concepts such as symptoms, causes, consequences, and management strategies. By grounding the findings in empirical data, the theory provides researchers and practitioners with evidence of which crucial factors of architectural technical debt are experienced in industrial contexts.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Due to space limitations, in this paper we do not discuss in detail the categories with direct semantics in our theory (ATD, Artifact, Tool, and System), and the marginal categories related to human factors (Person and Communication).

  2. 2.

    http://s2group.cs.vu.nl/files/ATD_GT_ECSA_companion_material.pdf.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Roberto Verdecchia & Patricia Lago

  2. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Philippe Kruchten

Authors
  1. Roberto Verdecchia
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  2. Philippe Kruchten
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  3. Patricia Lago
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roberto Verdecchia .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Koninklijke Philips N.V., Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Anton Jansen

  2. VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Ivano Malavolta

  3. University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

    Henry Muccini

  4. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, PA, USA

    Ipek Ozkaya

  5. University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland, Rapperswil, Switzerland

    Olaf Zimmermann

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Verdecchia, R., Kruchten, P., Lago, P. (2020). Architectural Technical Debt: A Grounded Theory. In: Jansen, A., Malavolta, I., Muccini, H., Ozkaya, I., Zimmermann, O. (eds) Software Architecture. ECSA 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12292. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58923-3_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58923-3_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-58922-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-58923-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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