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Debt Stories: Capturing Social and Technical Debt in the Industry | SNAIL team
<!doctype html><html lang=en-us><head><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta http-equiv=X-UA-Compatible content="IE=edge"><meta name=generator content="Hugo Blox Builder 5.9.7"><link rel=stylesheet href=/css/vendor-bundle.min.26c458e6907dc03073573976b7f4044e.css media=print onload='this.media="all"'><link rel=stylesheet href=https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/jpswalsh/academicons@1.9.4/css/academicons.min.css integrity="sha512-IW0nhlW5MgNydsXJO40En2EoCkTTjZhI3yuODrZIc8cQ4h1XcF53PsqDHa09NqnkXuIe0Oiyyj171BqZFwISBw==" crossorigin=anonymous media=print onload='this.media="all"'><link rel=stylesheet href=https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/leaflet@1.7.1/dist/leaflet.min.css integrity crossorigin=anonymous media=print onload='this.media="all"'><link rel=stylesheet href=/css/wowchemy.61d48f4c7cb36d56dd8f644f71885b2e.css><link rel=stylesheet href=/css/libs/chroma/github-light.min.css title=hl-light media=print onload='this.media="all"' disabled><link rel=stylesheet href=/css/libs/chroma/dracula.min.css title=hl-dark media=print onload='this.media="all"'><meta name=description content="In today's organizations, software is mission-critical. However, the legacy of past decisions can make tasks related to artifacts increasingly inefficient or risky, creating debt. While most researchers and practitioners mainly focus on technical debt, some have investigated its social dimensions, known as social debt. We argue that organizations developing software need to tackle debt holistically, as it is intrinsically a socio-technical issue. In this short paper, we rely on a definition of socio-technical debt based on the existing literature to define Debt Stories: a tool based on the User Story format, that can help capture debt elements directly from the stakeholders involved in software development. A debt story includes information about the role of the stakeholder in the development process, the social or technical context, and the impact of the debt element on the different tasks performed by the stakeholder. We provide a first empirical evaluation of the usage of Debt Stories in an industrial context, demonstrating the relevance of Debt Stories to express and communicate socio-technical debt."><link rel=alternate hreflang=en-us href=https://snail.info.unamur.be/publication/riquet-2024/><link rel=canonical href=https://snail.info.unamur.be/publication/riquet-2024/><link rel=manifest href=/manifest.webmanifest><link rel=icon type=image/png href=/media/icon_hu9364573368218587345.png><link rel=apple-touch-icon type=image/png href=/media/icon_hu3352141532515436254.png><meta name=theme-color content="#bbdefb"><meta property="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"><meta property="twitter:image" content="https://snail.info.unamur.be/publication/riquet-2024/featured.png"><meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:site_name" content="SNAIL team"><meta property="og:url" content="https://snail.info.unamur.be/publication/riquet-2024/"><meta property="og:title" content="Debt Stories: Capturing Social and Technical Debt in the Industry | SNAIL team"><meta property="og:description" content="In today's organizations, software is mission-critical. However, the legacy of past decisions can make tasks related to artifacts increasingly inefficient or risky, creating debt. While most researchers and practitioners mainly focus on technical debt, some have investigated its social dimensions, known as social debt. We argue that organizations developing software need to tackle debt holistically, as it is intrinsically a socio-technical issue. In this short paper, we rely on a definition of socio-technical debt based on the existing literature to define Debt Stories: a tool based on the User Story format, that can help capture debt elements directly from the stakeholders involved in software development. A debt story includes information about the role of the stakeholder in the development process, the social or technical context, and the impact of the debt element on the different tasks performed by the stakeholder. We provide a first empirical evaluation of the usage of Debt Stories in an industrial context, demonstrating the relevance of Debt Stories to express and communicate socio-technical debt."><meta property="og:image" content="https://snail.info.unamur.be/publication/riquet-2024/featured.png"><meta property="og:locale" content="en-us"><meta property="article:published_time" content="2024-02-04T00:00:00+00:00"><meta property="article:modified_time" content="2025-02-09T12:06:38+01:00"><script type=application/ld+json>{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://snail.info.unamur.be/publication/riquet-2024/"},"headline":"Debt Stories: Capturing Social and Technical Debt in the Industry","image":["https://snail.info.unamur.be/publication/riquet-2024/featured.png"],"datePublished":"2024-02-04T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2025-02-09T12:06:38+01:00","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Nicolas Riquet"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"SNAIL","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://snail.info.unamur.be/media/icon_hu942702527640459487.png"}},"description":"In today's organizations, software is mission-critical. However, the legacy of past decisions can make tasks related to artifacts increasingly inefficient or risky, creating debt. While most researchers and practitioners mainly focus on technical debt, some have investigated its social dimensions, known as social debt. We argue that organizations developing software need to tackle debt holistically, as it is intrinsically a socio-technical issue. In this short paper, we rely on a definition of socio-technical debt based on the existing literature to define Debt Stories: a tool based on the User Story format, that can help capture debt elements directly from the stakeholders involved in software development. A debt story includes information about the role of the stakeholder in the development process, the social or technical context, and the impact of the debt element on the different tasks performed by the stakeholder. We provide a first empirical evaluation of the usage of Debt Stories in an industrial context, demonstrating the relevance of Debt Stories to express and communicate socio-technical debt."}</script><title>Debt Stories: Capturing Social and Technical Debt in the Industry | SNAIL team</title></head><body id=top data-spy=scroll data-offset=70 data-target=#TableOfContents class="page-wrapper dark" data-wc-page-id=72d8686e096f5ff29b26d71060f3f13a><script src=/js/wowchemy-init.min.db21e13b9b5c4f4b947717750ec8b3cc.js></script><aside class=search-modal id=search><div class=container><section class=search-header><div class="row no-gutters justify-content-between mb-3"><div class=col-6><h1>Search</h1></div><div class="col-6 col-search-close"><a class=js-search href=# aria-label=Close><i class="fas fa-times-circle text-muted" aria-hidden=true></i></a></div></div><div id=search-box><input name=q id=search-query placeholder=Search... autocapitalize=off autocomplete=off autocorrect=off spellcheck=false type=search class=form-control aria-label=Search...></div></section><section class=section-search-results><div id=search-hits></div></section></div></aside><div class="page-header header--fixed"><header><nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-light compensate-for-scrollbar" id=navbar-main><div class=container-xl><div class="d-none d-lg-inline-flex"><a class=navbar-brand href=/>SNAIL team</a></div><button type=button class=navbar-toggler data-toggle=collapse data-target=#navbar-content aria-controls=navbar-content aria-expanded=false aria-label="Toggle navigation"> <span><i class="fas fa-bars"></i></span></button><div class="navbar-brand-mobile-wrapper d-inline-flex d-lg-none"><a class=navbar-brand href=/>SNAIL team</a></div><div class="navbar-collapse main-menu-item collapse justify-content-end" id=navbar-content><ul class="navbar-nav d-md-inline-flex"><li class="nav-item dropdown"><a href=# class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" data-toggle=dropdown aria-haspopup=true><span>Research</span><span class=caret></span></a><div class=dropdown-menu><a class=dropdown-item href=/research/#projects><span>Projects</span></a> <a class=dropdown-item href=/research/#publications><span>Publications</span></a></div></li><li class=nav-item><a class=nav-link href=/mscthesis><span>MSc Thesis</span></a></li><li class=nav-item><a class=nav-link href=/news><span>News</span></a></li><li class="nav-item dropdown"><a href=# class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" data-toggle=dropdown aria-haspopup=true><span>About SNAIL</span><span class=caret></span></a><div class=dropdown-menu><a class=dropdown-item href=/about><span>About</span></a> <a class=dropdown-item href=/about/#contact><span>Contact</span></a> <a class=dropdown-item href=/people><span>People</span></a></div></li></ul></div><ul class="nav-icons navbar-nav flex-row ml-auto d-flex pl-md-2"><li class=nav-item><a class="nav-link js-search" href=# aria-label=Search><i class="fas fa-search" aria-hidden=true></i></a></li></ul></div></nav></header></div><div class=page-body><div class=pub><div class="article-container pt-3"><h1>Debt Stories: Capturing Social and Technical Debt in the Industry</h1><div class=article-metadata><div><span><a href=/author/nicolas-riquet/>Nicolas Riquet</a></span>, <span><a href=/author/xavier-devroey/>Xavier Devroey</a></span>, <span><a href=/author/benoit-vanderose/>Benoît Vanderose</a></span></div><span class=article-date>April 2024</span></div><div class="btn-links mb-3"><a class="btn btn-outline-primary btn-page-header" href=https://xdevroey.be/publication/riquet-2024/riquet-2024.pdf target=_blank rel=noopener>PDF </a><a href=# class="btn btn-outline-primary btn-page-header js-cite-modal" data-filename=/publication/riquet-2024/cite.bib>Cite </a><a class="btn btn-outline-primary btn-page-header" href=https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10518270 target=_blank rel=noopener>Dataset </a><a class="btn btn-outline-primary btn-page-header" href=/project/phd-nicolas-riquet/>Project </a><a class="btn btn-outline-primary btn-page-header" href=https://doi.org/10.1145/3644384.3644473 target=_blank rel=noopener>DOI</a></div></div><div class="article-header article-container featured-image-wrapper mt-4 mb-4" style=max-width:720px;max-height:178px><div style=position:relative><img src=/publication/riquet-2024/featured_hu6424625870404119344.webp width=720 height=178 alt class=featured-image></div></div><div class=article-container><h3>Abstract</h3><p class=pub-abstract>In today’s organizations, software is mission-critical. However, the legacy of past decisions can make tasks related to artifacts increasingly inefficient or risky, creating debt. While most researchers and practitioners mainly focus on technical debt, some have investigated its social dimensions, known as social debt. We argue that organizations developing software need to tackle debt holistically, as it is intrinsically a socio-technical issue. In this short paper, we rely on a definition of socio-technical debt based on the existing literature to define Debt Stories: a tool based on the User Story format, that can help capture debt elements directly from the stakeholders involved in software development. A debt story includes information about the role of the stakeholder in the development process, the social or technical context, and the impact of the debt element on the different tasks performed by the stakeholder. We provide a first empirical evaluation of the usage of Debt Stories in an industrial context, demonstrating the relevance of Debt Stories to express and communicate socio-technical debt.</p><div class=row><div class=col-md-1></div><div class=col-md-10><div class=row><div class="col-12 col-md-3 pub-row-heading">Type</div><div class="col-12 col-md-9"><a href=/publication/#paper-conference>Conference paper</a></div></div></div><div class=col-md-1></div></div><div class="d-md-none space-below"></div><div class=row><div class=col-md-1></div><div class=col-md-10><div class=row><div class="col-12 col-md-3 pub-row-heading">Publication</div><div class="col-12 col-md-9"><em>International Conference on Technical Debt (TechDebt ‘24)</em></div></div></div><div class=col-md-1></div></div><div class="d-md-none space-below"></div><div class=space-below></div><div class=article-style></div><div class=article-tags><a class="badge badge-light" href=/tag/socio-technical-factors/>Socio-Technical Factors</a> <a class="badge badge-light" href=/tag/socio-technical-debt/>Socio-Technical Debt</a> <a class="badge badge-light" href=/tag/software-engineering/>Software Engineering</a></div><div class=share-box><ul class=share><li><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsnail.info.unamur.be%2Fpublication%2Friquet-2024%2F&text=Debt+Stories%3A+Capturing+Social+and+Technical+Debt+in+the+Industry" target=_blank rel=noopener class=share-btn-twitter aria-label=twitter><i class="fab fa-twitter"></i></a></li><li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsnail.info.unamur.be%2Fpublication%2Friquet-2024%2F&t=Debt+Stories%3A+Capturing+Social+and+Technical+Debt+in+the+Industry" target=_blank rel=noopener class=share-btn-facebook aria-label=facebook><i class="fab fa-facebook"></i></a></li><li><a href="mailto:?subject=Debt%20Stories%3A%20Capturing%20Social%20and%20Technical%20Debt%20in%20the%20Industry&body=https%3A%2F%2Fsnail.info.unamur.be%2Fpublication%2Friquet-2024%2F" target=_blank rel=noopener class=share-btn-email aria-label=envelope><i class="fas fa-envelope"></i></a></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsnail.info.unamur.be%2Fpublication%2Friquet-2024%2F&title=Debt+Stories%3A+Capturing+Social+and+Technical+Debt+in+the+Industry" target=_blank rel=noopener class=share-btn-linkedin aria-label=linkedin-in><i class="fab fa-linkedin-in"></i></a></li><li><a href="whatsapp://send?text=Debt+Stories%3A+Capturing+Social+and+Technical+Debt+in+the+Industry%20https%3A%2F%2Fsnail.info.unamur.be%2Fpublication%2Friquet-2024%2F" target=_blank rel=noopener class=share-btn-whatsapp aria-label=whatsapp><i class="fab fa-whatsapp"></i></a></li><li><a href="https://service.weibo.com/share/share.php?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsnail.info.unamur.be%2Fpublication%2Friquet-2024%2F&title=Debt+Stories%3A+Capturing+Social+and+Technical+Debt+in+the+Industry" target=_blank rel=noopener class=share-btn-weibo aria-label=weibo><i class="fab fa-weibo"></i></a></li></ul></div><div class="media author-card content-widget-hr"><a href=/author/nicolas-riquet/><img class="avatar mr-3 avatar-circle" src=/author/nicolas-riquet/avatar_hu12354389883498392206.jpeg alt="Nicolas Riquet"></a><div class=media-body><h5 class=card-title><a href=/author/nicolas-riquet/>Nicolas Riquet</a></h5><h6 class=card-subtitle>PhD Student</h6><p class=card-text>I am the head of Software Engineering Productivity at Le Forem, a public service for employment and vocational training in Wallonia, Belgium, where I lead a team of 21 employees and consultants. My research goal is to develop a holistic approach to socio-technical debt by designing a framework for helping developers and managers to address software debt and prioritize mitigating actions.</p><ul class=network-icon aria-hidden=true><li><a href=https://nicolasriquet.github.io/ target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="fas fa-globe"></i></a></li><li><a href=mailto:nicolas.riquet@forem.be><i class="fas fa-envelope"></i></a></li><li><a href=https://twitter.com/NicolasRiquet target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="fab fa-twitter"></i></a></li><li><a href=https://github.com/nicolasriquet target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="fab fa-github"></i></a></li></ul></div></div><div class="media author-card content-widget-hr"><a href=/author/xavier-devroey/><img class="avatar mr-3 avatar-circle" src=/author/xavier-devroey/avatar_hu12871045378692760063.jpg alt="Xavier Devroey"></a><div class=media-body><h5 class=card-title><a href=/author/xavier-devroey/>Xavier Devroey</a></h5><h6 class=card-subtitle>Assistant Professor of Software Testing</h6><p class=card-text>My research goal is to to ease software testing by exploring new paths to achieve a high level of automation for test case design, generation, selection, and prioritization. My main research interests include search-based and model-based software testing, test suite augmentation, DevOps, and variability-intensive systems.</p><ul class=network-icon aria-hidden=true><li><a href=https://xdevroey.be target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="fas fa-globe"></i></a></li><li><a href=mailto:xavier.devroey@unamur.be><i class="fas fa-envelope"></i></a></li><li><a href=https://bsky.app/profile/xdevroey.bsky.social target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="fab fa-twitter"></i></a></li><li><a href=https://github.com/xdevroey target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="fab fa-github"></i></a></li><li><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GTaILJgAAAAJ" target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="ai ai-google-scholar"></i></a></li><li><a href=https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0831-7606 target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="ai ai-orcid"></i></a></li></ul></div></div><div class="media author-card content-widget-hr"><a href=/author/benoit-vanderose/><img class="avatar mr-3 avatar-circle" src=/author/benoit-vanderose/avatar_hu15926057805762996209.jpg alt="Benoît Vanderose"></a><div class=media-body><h5 class=card-title><a href=/author/benoit-vanderose/>Benoît Vanderose</a></h5><h6 class=card-subtitle>Assistant Professor of Software Engineering</h6><ul class=network-icon aria-hidden=true><li><a href=mailto:benoit.vanderose@unamur.be><i class="fas fa-envelope"></i></a></li><li><a href=https://twitter.com/bvdose target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="fab fa-twitter"></i></a></li><li><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=wrx_zAQAAAAJ" target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="ai ai-google-scholar"></i></a></li><li><a href=https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9752-0085 target=_blank rel=noopener><i class="ai ai-orcid"></i></a></li></ul></div></div></div></div></div><div class=page-footer><div class=container><footer class=site-footer><p class="powered-by copyright-license-text">© 2025 SNAIL. 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