A Balancing Act: What Software Practitioners Have to Say about Technical Debt

An interview study involving 35 practitioners from a variety of domains aimed to characterize technical debt at the ground level to find out how software practitioners perceive it. The study also aimed to understand the context in which technical debt occurs, including its causes, symptoms, and effects. In addition, the study focused on how practitioners currently deal with technical debt. This analysis paints a picture of a large, complex balancing act of various short- and long-term concerns. The Web Extra gives the interview questions used by Erin Lim, Nitin Taksande, and Carolyn Seaman.