Authors:
Hina Saeeda
1
;
Muhammad Ahmad
1
and
Tomas Gustavsson
2
Affiliations:
1
Department of Computer Science, Karlstad University, Sweden
;
2
Karlstad Business School, Karlstad University, Sweden
Keyword(s):
Technical Debt, Non-Technical Debt, Process Debt, Social Debt, People Debt, Organizational Debt, Software Development, Multivocal Literature Review, Systematic Review.
Abstract:
Earlier research has focused on technical debt (TD). While numerous issues connected to non-technical aspects
of software development (SD) that are equally worthy of ”debt” status are neglected. Simultaneously, these
types of debts regularly develop significant challenges to be addressed, demonstrating that the debt metaphor
may be used to reason about elements other than technical ones. It motivates us to create the new umbrella term
”Non-Technical Debt” (NTD) to investigate people, processes, culture, social, and organizational concerns
under its cover. All types of debt are similar in some ways, and they are often caused by making risky decisions.
Therefore, ignoring any one dimension of debt can have severe consequences on the successful completion
of the SD projects. This study investigates recent literature on the current state of knowledge about NTD, its
causes, and mitigation strategies. We identified 40 primary studies out of 110 records published until April
2022.
By using a thematic analysis approach, we found five NTD types (i.e., people, process, culture, social,
and organizational). We further identified their accumulation causes and discussed remedies for mitigation
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