Managing Technical Debt in Automation: Best Practices and Cross-Life-Cycle Strategies

Fandi Bi, Birgit Vogel-Heuser, Ziyi Huang, Kathrin Land, Felix Ocker

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

Abstract

Technical decisions that offer short-term gains but result in long-term disturbances and costs are often made due to the insufficient appreciation or underestimation of their scope, impact, and remedial actions. Technical Debt (TD) is a metaphor that embodies such phenomena and poses a particularly harmful threat when interdisciplinary teams interact and collaborate. The study presents new methods analyzing cross-company TD characteristics and positive TD best practice use cases gathered from 47 semi-structured expert interviews in the industrial automation domain. The three most important life cycle phases, the requirement, design, and testing phases, are addressed. The analysis demonstrates that, like adverse TD incidents, cross-life-cycle ripple effects can be advantageous or disadvantageous to the system. By implementing one measure, the system can benefit in multiple life-cycle phases and even disciplines. Additionally, the measures identified can prevent and eliminate numerous TD types and subtypes. The study elaborates on 31 measures that address 129 TD subtypes and proposes a systematic lessons-learned-based step for managing TD incidents in the automation sector.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2023 IEEE 21st International Conference on Industrial Informatics, INDIN 2023
EditorsHelene Dorksen, Stefano Scanzio, Jurgen Jasperneite, Lukasz Wisniewski, Kim Fung Man, Thilo Sauter, Lucia Seno, Henning Trsek, Valeriy Vyatkin
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781665493130
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
Event21st IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics, INDIN 2023 - Lemgo, Germany
Duration: 17 Jul 202320 Jul 2023

Publication series

NameIEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN)
Volume2023-July
ISSN (Print)1935-4576

Conference

Conference21st IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics, INDIN 2023
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityLemgo
Period17/07/2320/07/23

Keywords

  • TD subtype
  • TD type
  • automation
  • correlation analysis
  • design
  • industrial best practice
  • life cycle
  • requirements
  • technical debt
  • technical debt management
  • testing

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Managing Technical Debt in Automation: Best Practices and Cross-Life-Cycle Strategies'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this