Socio-Technical Debt

This project aims to investigate the relationship between developer experience and socio-technical debt within software engineering teams. Socio-technical debt represents the accumulated costs and challenges arising from suboptimal decisions in both technical and social aspects of software development, such as poor code quality, lack of documentation, ineffective communication, and misaligned team practices. By providing actionable insights, this project seeks to help organizations foster better working environments, minimize socio-technical debt, and enhance the long-term sustainability and maintainability of their software projects.

This thesis explores the impact of socio-technical debt on developer well-being. It combines two approaches: a quantitative approach (a structured questionnaire and a perceived stress scale) and a qualitative approach (a thematic analysis of open-ended responses). This study highlights existing links between perceived debt, social tensions, and workplace stress.