Applicability of Technical Debt as a Concept to Understand Obstacles for Evolution of Automated Production Systems

Birgit Vogel-Heuser, Susanne Rösch

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Automated production systems (aPS), a specific class of mechatronic systems, are complex, long living, software intensive, evolving systems designed according to customer request. Often, the evolution of such systems has to cope with imponderables and sudden disturbances of the systematic development or maintenance process. In software engineering, the concept of technical debt and, in more detail, architectural technical debt has been introduced recently to describe phenomena, which increase software development costs over time. This paper tries to adapt and apply the classification of technical debt and architectural technical debt to automated production systems, identifying similar dimensions but adding specific challenges, causes and their effects. Once the causes and effects are identified, management and recovery strategies coping with technical debt and architectural technical debt shall be developed in the future, thereby enlarging the strategies from software engineering. The adapted classification and adaptations are based on the experience of several industrial projects in aPS.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2015
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages127-132
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781479986965
DOIs
StatePublished - 12 Jan 2016
EventIEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2015 - Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Duration: 9 Oct 201512 Oct 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2015

Conference

ConferenceIEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2015
Country/TerritoryHong Kong
CityKowloon Tong
Period9/10/1512/10/15

Keywords

  • IEC 61131-3
  • PLC
  • architectural debt
  • automation
  • software and system evolution
  • software engineering
  • technical debt

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