Software quality analysis: a study using technical debt catalog

• Grant number: 16/15631-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2017
• End date: July 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computing Methodologies and Techniques
• Principal Investigator: Rogério Eduardo Garcia
• Grantee: Bruno Santos de Lima
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Technical debt is a metaphor that describes the cost-benefit ratio of the returns (financial) in short-term delay of technical activities in development of software and its long-term consequences. The technical debt build-up of a software product can degrade the project and derail its maintenance. Considering the importance of being minimize (and pay) technical debt to avoid such degradation, this project aims to assess the evolution of technical debt. For that, this project focuses on analyzing multiple versions of a source code to identify potential technical debt and catalog such debts. The catalog will be used to analyze the quality of the source code for the project developments. From maintenance perspective, the greater the presence of technical debt, more impaired and this step is costly. Thus, data collection in order to create historical database on the technical debt is important. For analysis, a multiple software versions will be chosen kept in an open repository (GitHub) and two tools: the first (SonarQube) assist in the automatic identification of potential problems; the second (TD-Tracker) for cataloging the technical debt in a repository. Data analysis might allow management with regard to issues such as: What technical debt persist over time? What is the average time for payment of a debt? Who is responsible for injecting these debts? (AU)