Technical Debt is an Ethical Issue

Paul John Gibson; Yannis Stavrakakis; Massamaesso Narouwa; Damian Gordon; Dympna O'Sullivan; Jonathan Turner; Michael Collins

doi:10.21427/y73z-6p82

Technical Debt is an Ethical Issue

Paul John Gibson, Yannis Stavrakakis, Massamaesso Narouwa, Damian Gordon, Dympna O'Sullivan, Jonathan Turner, Michael Collins

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

Abstract

We introduce the problem of technical debt, with particular focus on critical infrastructure, and put forward our view that this is a digital ethics issue. We propose that the software engineering process must adapt its current notion of technical debt – focusing on technical costs – to include the potential cost to society if the technical debt is not addressed, and the cost of analysing, modelling and understanding this ethical debt. Finally, we provide an overview of the development of educational material – based on a collection of technical debt case studies - in order to teach about technical debt and its ethical implications

Original language	English
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.21427/y73z-6p82
Publication status	Published - 2022
Event	20th International Conference on the Ethical and Social issues in Information and Communication Technologies - Turku, Finland Duration: 26 Jul 2022 → 28 Jul 2022

Conference

Conference	20th International Conference on the Ethical and Social issues in Information and Communication Technologies
Country/Territory	Finland
City	Turku
Period	26/07/22 → 28/07/22

Keywords

technical debt
critical infrastructure
digital ethics
software engineering
ethical debt
educational material
case studies

Access to Document

10.21427/y73z-6p82Licence: CC BY

GibsonNGO'STC22Final published version, 338 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@conference{e0cc3cd7c40945a099cb74a85db0cb60,

title = "Technical Debt is an Ethical Issue",

abstract = "We introduce the problem of technical debt, with particular focus on critical infrastructure, and put forward our view that this is a digital ethics issue. We propose that the software engineering process must adapt its current notion of technical debt – focusing on technical costs – to include the potential cost to society if the technical debt is not addressed, and the cost of analysing, modelling and understanding this ethical debt. Finally, we provide an overview of the development of educational material – based on a collection of technical debt case studies - in order to teach about technical debt and its ethical implications",

keywords = "technical debt, critical infrastructure, digital ethics, software engineering, ethical debt, educational material, case studies",

author = "Gibson, {Paul John} and Yannis Stavrakakis and Massamaesso Narouwa and Damian Gordon and Dympna O'Sullivan and Jonathan Turner and Michael Collins",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.21427/y73z-6p82",

language = "English",

note = "20th International Conference on the Ethical and Social issues in Information and Communication Technologies ; Conference date: 26-07-2022 Through 28-07-2022",

}

TY - CONF

T1 - Technical Debt is an Ethical Issue

AU - Gibson, Paul John

AU - Stavrakakis, Yannis

AU - Narouwa, Massamaesso

AU - Gordon, Damian

AU - O'Sullivan, Dympna

AU - Turner, Jonathan

AU - Collins, Michael

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - We introduce the problem of technical debt, with particular focus on critical infrastructure, and put forward our view that this is a digital ethics issue. We propose that the software engineering process must adapt its current notion of technical debt – focusing on technical costs – to include the potential cost to society if the technical debt is not addressed, and the cost of analysing, modelling and understanding this ethical debt. Finally, we provide an overview of the development of educational material – based on a collection of technical debt case studies - in order to teach about technical debt and its ethical implications

AB - We introduce the problem of technical debt, with particular focus on critical infrastructure, and put forward our view that this is a digital ethics issue. We propose that the software engineering process must adapt its current notion of technical debt – focusing on technical costs – to include the potential cost to society if the technical debt is not addressed, and the cost of analysing, modelling and understanding this ethical debt. Finally, we provide an overview of the development of educational material – based on a collection of technical debt case studies - in order to teach about technical debt and its ethical implications

KW - technical debt

KW - critical infrastructure

KW - digital ethics

KW - software engineering

KW - ethical debt

KW - educational material

KW - case studies

U2 - 10.21427/y73z-6p82

DO - 10.21427/y73z-6p82

M3 - Paper

T2 - 20th International Conference on the Ethical and Social issues in Information and Communication Technologies

Y2 - 26 July 2022 through 28 July 2022

ER -

Technical Debt is an Ethical Issue

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this