Technical Debt Contagiousness Metrics for Measurement and Prioritization in Mechatronics

Fandi Bi, Birgit Vogel-Heuser, Fengmin Du, Nils Hanich, Ennuri Cho

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

Abstract

Underlying and undiscovered technical debt (TD) that burdens the system and makes future changes more costly or impossible poses significant risks to mechatronic systems. Multi-disciplinary collaboration and cooperation lead to interdisciplinary interfaces and new life cycle phases that cause greater ripple effects to the TD distribution. When quantifying TD contagiousness in interdisciplinary engineering, only a few metrics, methods, or tools prove applicable. In this work, we propose a method containing two key metrics to quantify TD contagiousness across product life cycles and disciplines. Furthermore, we suggest a matrix multiplication method to quantify the adverse impact on each discipline and the system. By applying the methods to the data of three comparable companies in the industrial automation domain, the results enable us to measure and prioritize the TD incidents' contagiousness. This method provides a first step towards the systematic quantification of TD in the interdisciplinary environment and provides metrics to compare systems based on objective factors.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Technical Debt, TechDebt 2023
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages42-51
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9798350311945
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
Event6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Technical Debt, TechDebt 2023 - Melbourne, Australia
Duration: 14 May 202315 May 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Technical Debt, TechDebt 2023

Conference

Conference6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Technical Debt, TechDebt 2023
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CityMelbourne
Period14/05/2315/05/23

Keywords

  • contagiousness
  • industrial automation
  • interdisciplinary
  • measurement
  • metrics
  • prioritization
  • quantification
  • technical debt

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Technical Debt Contagiousness Metrics for Measurement and Prioritization in Mechatronics'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this