On the Temporality of Introducing Code Technical Debt

Code Technical Debt (TD) is intentionally or unintentionally created when developers introduce inefficiencies in the codebase. This can be attributed to various reasons such as heavy work-load, tight delivery schedule, unawareness of good practices, etc. To shed light into the context that leads to technical debt accumulation, in this paper we investigate: (a) the temporality of code technical debt introduction in new methods, i.e., whether the introduction of technical debt is stable across the lifespan of the project, or if its evolution presents spikes; and (b) the relation of technical debt introduction and the development team’s workload in a given period. To answer these questions, we perform a case study on twenty-seven Apache projects, and inspect the number of Technical Debt Items introduced in 6-month sliding temporal windows. The results of the study suggest that: (a) overall, the number of Technical Debt Items introduced through new code is a stable metric, although it presents some spikes; and (b) the number of commits performed is not strongly correlated to the number of introduced Technical Debt Items

Factors affecting innovation and imitation of ICT in the agrifood sector

Diffusion of innovations has gained a lot of attention and concerns different scientific fields. Many studies, which examine the determining factors of technological innovations in the agricultural and agrifood sector, have been conducted using the widely used Technology Accepted Model, for a random sample of farmers or firms engaged in agricultural sector. In the present study, a holistic examination of the determining factors that affect the propensity of firms to innovate or imitate, is conducted. The diffusion of ICT tools of firms which are engaged in the NACE 02/03 as well as in the NACE 10/11 classifications for 49 heterogeneous national markets is examined, using the Bass model. The innovation parameter is positively associated with rural income, female employment, export activity and education of farmers, while the imitation parameter is increased in countries whose societies are characterized by uncertainty avoidance

How long do junior developers take to remove technical debt items?

Background. Software engineering is one of the engineering fields with the highest inflow of junior engineers. Tools that utilize source code analysis to provide feedback on internal software quality, i.e. Technical Debt (TD), are valuable to junior developers who can learn and improve their coding skills with minimal consultations with senior colleagues. Objective. We aim at understating which SonarQube TD items junior developers prioritize during the refactoring and how long they take to refactor them. Method. We designed a case study with replicated design and we conducted it with 185 junior developers in two countries, that developed 23 projects with different programming languages and architectures. Results. Junior developers focus homogeneously on different types of TD items. Moreover, they can refactor items in a fraction of the estimated time, never spending more than 50% of the time estimated by SonarQube. Conclusion. Junior Developers appreciate the usage of SonarQube and considered as a useful tool. Companies might ask junior developers to quickly clean their code.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe