What's behind tight deadlines? Business causes of technical debt

TL;DR

This paper investigates how business pressures, especially tight deadlines and feature prioritization, contribute to technical debt, using a survey and thematic analysis to develop a cause-effect model.

Contribution

It identifies business-related causes of technical debt and introduces a cause-effect model linking business pressures to technical debt accumulation.

Findings

Business causes include tight deadlines and feature prioritization.

Two categories of causes: pure-business and business/IT gap.

A cause-effect model explaining how business pressures lead to technical debt.

Abstract

What are the business causes behind tight deadlines? What drives the prioritization of features that pushes quality matters to the back burner? We conducted a survey with 71 experienced practitioners and did a thematic analysis of the open-ended answers to the question: ``Could you give examples of how business may contribute to technical debt?'' Business-related causes were organized into two categories: pure-business and business/IT gap, and they were related to `tight deadlines' and `features over quality', the most frequently cited management reasons for technical debt. We contribute a cause-effect model which relates the various business causes of tight deadlines and the behavior of prioritizing features over quality aspects.