An Empirical Study on Technical Debt in a Finnish SME

TL;DR

This study investigates the types, causes, and effects of technical debt in a Finnish SME, highlighting how limited resources and misestimations contribute to debt accumulation and proposing strategies for mitigation.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of technical debt in a Finnish SME, identifying key causes, types, and mitigation strategies based on focus group insights.

Findings

Specification and test technical debt are most significant.

Disagreements with suppliers and lack of test automation are main causes.

Learning and continuous improvement help mitigate technical debt.

Abstract

Objective. In this work, we report the experience of a Finnish SME in managing Technical Debt (TD), investigating the most common types of TD they faced in the past, their causes, and their effects. Method. We set up a focus group in the case-company, involving different roles. Results. The results showed that the most significant TD in the company stems from disagreements with the supplier and lack of test automation. Specification and test TD are the most significant types of TD. Budget and time constraints were identified as the most important root causes of TD. Conclusion. TD occurs when time or budget is limited or the amount of work are not understood properly. However, not all postponed activities generated "debt". Sometimes the accumulation of TD helped meet deadlines without a major impact, while in other cases the cost for repaying the TD was much higher than the benefits. From this study, we learned that learning, careful estimations, and continuous improvement could be good strategies to mitigate TD. These strategies include iterative validation with customers, efficient communication with stakeholders, meta-cognition in estimations, and value orientation in budgeting and scheduling.