A Tertiary Study on Technical Debt Management over the last lustrum

Abstract

Technical Debt (TD) can be defined as any incomplete, immature, or inadequate artifact resulting from delayed activities or tasks that, if not resolved in a timely manner, may cause future problems. The objective of this article is to present a state of the art on TD, according to what has been reported in the last five years. To identify and interpret the results of the available research on TD on its management in the context of Software Engineering, a tertiary study was carried out under the approach of a mapping study, in which 19 secondary studies that included aspects related to TD were analyzed. A set of research questions were posed regarding types of TD, management activities, as well as human factors mentioned in the studies. The authors found areas of opportunity on the relationship between TD and human factors in topics such as morale, experience, human participation, and feelings.