A triple bottom-line typology of technical debt: Supporting decision-making in cross-functional teams
Loading...
Files
Published Version
Date
2022-01-04
Authors
Greville, Mark
O'Raghallaigh, Paidi
McCarthy, Stephen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Published Version
Abstract
Technical Debt (TD) is a widely discussed metaphor in IT practice focused on increased short-term benefit in exchange for long-term ‘debt’. While it is primarily individuals or groups inside IT departments who make the decisions to take on TD, we find that the effects of TD stretch across the entire organisation. Decisions to take on TD should therefore concern a wider group. However, business leaders have traditionally lacked awareness of the effects of what they perceive to be ‘technology decisions’. To facilitate TD as group-based decision-making, we review existing literature to develop a typology of the wider impacts of TD. The goal is to help technologists, non-technologists, and academics have a broader and shared understanding of TD and to facilitate more participatory and transparent technology-related decision making. We extend the typology to include a wider ‘outside in’ perspective and conclude by suggesting areas for further research.
Description
Keywords
Technical debt , Emerging issues in e-collaboration distributed group decision-making: Opportunities and challenges , Group decision making , Technology debt effects , Triple bottom line
Citation
Greville, M., O'Raghallaigh, P. and McCarthy, S. (2022) 'A triple bottom-line typology of technical debt: Supporting decision-making in cross-functional teams', Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Kauai, Hawaii, USA, 4-7 January, pp. 645-654. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/79408 (Accessed: 24 January 2022)