The Broken Windows Theory Applies to Technical Debt

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.01549v3
• Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2023 11:47:39 GMT
• Title: The Broken Windows Theory Applies to Technical Debt
• Authors: William Lev\'en, Hampus Broman, Terese Besker, and Richard Torkar
• Abstract summary: The term technical debt (TD) describes the aggregation of sub-optimal solutions that impede the evolution and maintenance of a system. Some claim that the broken windows theory (BWT) also applies to software development projects.
• Score: 2.864893907775704
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Context: The term technical debt (TD) describes the aggregation of sub-optimal solutions that serve to impede the evolution and maintenance of a system. Some claim that the broken windows theory (BWT), a concept borrowed from criminology, also applies to software development projects. The theory states that the presence of indications of previous crime (such as a broken window) will increase the likelihood of further criminal activity; TD could be considered the broken windows of software systems. Objective: To empirically investigate the causal relationship between the TD density of a system and the propensity of developers to introduce new TD during the extension of that system. Method: The study used a mixed-methods research strategy consisting of a controlled experiment with an accompanying survey and follow-up interviews. The experiment had a total of 29 developers of varying experience levels completing system extension tasks in already existing systems with high or low TD density. Results: The analysis revealed significant effects of TD level on the subjects' tendency to re-implement (rather than reuse) functionality, choose non-descriptive variable names, and introduce other code smells identified by the software tool SonarQube, all with at least 95% credible intervals. Conclusions: Three separate significant results along with a validating qualitative result combine to form substantial evidence of the BWT's existence in software engineering contexts. This study finds that existing TD can have a major impact on developers propensity to introduce new TD of various types during development.

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