Embracing Technical Debt, from a Startup Company Perspective

• Software  startups  are  typically  under  extreme pressure to get to market quickly with limited resources and high uncertainty.  This  pressure  and  uncertainty  is  likely  to  cause startups to accumulate technical debt as they make decisions that are more focused on the short-term than the long-term health of the codebase. However, most research on technical debt has been focused  on  more  mature  software  teams,  who  may  have  less pressure  and,  therefore,  reason  about  technical  debt  very differently  than  software  startups.  In  this  study,  we  seek  to understand  the  organizational  factors  that  lead  to  and  the benefits  and  challenges  associated  with  the  intentional accumulation  of  technical  debt  in  software  startups.  We interviewed 16 professionals involved in seven different software startups.  We  find  that  the  startup  phase,  the  experience  of  the developers,  software  knowledge  of  the  founders,  and  level  of employee  growth  are  some  of  the  organizational  factors  that influence  the  intentional  accumulation  of  technical  debt.  In addition,  we  find  the  software  startups  are  typically  driven  to achieve  a  “good  enough  level,”  and  this  guides  the  amount  of technical debt that they intentionally accumulate to balance the benefits  of  speed  to  market  and  reduced  resources  with  the challenges of later addressing technical debt.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Arbetslivsstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Work Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Programvaruteknik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Software Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Startup

Software development

Technical Debt

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)