Organizational debt—Roadblock to agility in software engineering: Exploring an emerging concept and future research for software excellence

Osama Al-Baik, Mwaffaq Abu Alhija, Hikmat Abdeljaber and Muhammad Ovais Ahmad

PLOS ONE, 2024, vol. 19, issue 11, 1-20

Abstract: In software engineering, organizational debt (OD) is a crucial but little-researched phenomena. OD refers to the accumulation of outdated structures, policies, and processes that hinder an organization’s advancement and adaptability. This multivocal literature review (MLR) synthesizes insights from software practitioners to elucidate OD causes, consequences, identification, and mitigation approaches that is considered a first step in illuminating the OD for software practitioners. After a thorough search, nine peer-reviewed articles and twenty-two recent blog posts on OD were included, indicating an emerging topic. Through inductive thematic analysis, four key topics emerged: definitions, causes like poorly managed change and siloed efforts, effects such as reduced innovation and agility, and mitigation strategies including agile principles, decentralized decision-making, and leveraging staff insights. While relying partly on non-peer-reviewed sources raises validity concerns, the review still provides a holistic and practical understanding of OD dynamics and complexities grounded in diverse perspectives. Further empirical research across diverse organizations would strengthen these preliminary findings. Effective OD management necessitates collaboration between academia and industry, considering technical debt (TD) best practices while tailoring interventions to OD’s distinct socio-technical characteristics.

Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0308183

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0308183

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