Investigating Technical Debt Types, Issues, and Solutions in Serverless Computing

TL;DR

This paper analyzes technical debt in serverless computing by examining a large dataset of Stack Overflow questions, identifying types, issues, and solutions, and emphasizing the need for better detection tools.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis of technical debt manifestations, issues, and solutions specific to serverless computing using deep learning on Stack Overflow data.

Findings

37% of serverless questions relate to technical debt

Six serverless-specific technical debt issues identified

Highlights the need for effective TD detection tools

Abstract

Serverless computing is a cloud execution model where developers run code, and the server management is handled by the cloud provider. Serverless computing is increasingly gaining popularity as more systems adopt it to enhance scalability and reduce operational costs. While it has numerous benefits, it also embodies unique challenges inherent to serverless computing. One such challenge is Technical Debt (TD), which is exacerbated by the complexities of the serverless paradigm. While prior work has investigated the activities and bad practices that lead to TD in serverless computing, there remains a gap in understanding how TD manifests, the challenges it poses, and the solutions proposed to address TD issues in serverless systems. This study aims to investigate TD in the serverless context using Stack Overflow (SO) as a knowledge base. We collected 78,867 serverless questions on SO and labeled them as TD or non-TD using deep learning. Moreover, we conducted an in-depth analysis to identify types of TD in serverless settings, associated issues, and proposed solutions. We found that 37% of the serverless questions on SO are TD-related. We also identified six serverless-specific issues. Our research highlights the need for tools that can effectively detect TD in serverless applications.