Technical debt from the stakeholder perspective

Abstract

The concept of technical debt provides an excellent tool for describing technology gaps in terms any stakeholder can understand. The technical debt metaphor was pioneered by the software development community and describes technical challenges in that context very well. However, establishing a definitional framework which describes issues affecting quality more broadly will better align to stakeholder perspectives. Building on the existing concept in this way will enable technology stakeholders by providing a centralized technical debt model. The metaphor can then be used to consistently describe quality challenges anywhere within the technical environment. This paper lays the foundation for this conceptual model by proposing a definitional framework that describes how technology gaps affect all aspects of quality.