Measuring affective states from technical debt

ContextSoftware engineering is a human activity. Despite this, human aspects are under-represented in technical debt research, perhaps because they are challenging to evaluate.ObjectiveThis study’s objective was to investigate the relationship between technical debt and affective states (feelings, emotions, and moods) from software practitioners.MethodForty participants (N = 40) from twelve companies took part in a mixed-methods approach, consisting of a repeated-measures (r = 5) experiment (n = 200), a survey, and semi-structured interviews. From the qualitative data, it is clear that technical debt activates a substantial portion of the emotional spectrum and is psychologically taxing. Further, the practitioners’ reactions to technical debt appear to fall in different levels of maturity.ResultsThe statistical analysis shows that different design smells (strong indicators of technical debt) negatively or positively impact affective states.ConclusionsWe argue that human aspects in technical debt are important factors to consider, as they may result in, e.g., procrastination, apprehension, and burnout.