Technical Debt Trade-off - Experiences from Software Startups becoming Grownups

Abstract

Software startups are software-intensive early-stage companies that have higher growth rates compared to other startup breeds. Their time to market is often regarded as short and decisive in establishing their product/service success, thus leading to short-cuts in software engineering decisions. High accumulation of the technical debt at early stages has been documented from previous investigations. How startups rapidly becoming grownups perceive technical debt, make the primary goal of our study. We conducted semi-structured interviews with six technical and executive officers from five software startups, selected using purposive sampling. We identified four critical perceptions (managing, accepting, avoiding, ignoring technical debt) which permit them to make technical debt trade-offs. We also found that no one size fits all. Startups need to make deliberate educated decisions on how to use technical debt in their advantage. This study, throughout its recommendations, provides an initial road-map for future startups.

Technical Debt Trade-off - Experiences from Software Startups becoming Grownups