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Evaluation of System Integration and Qualification Strategies using the Technical Debt metaphor; a case study in Subsea System Development
Author(s) -
Callister Peter S.,
Andersson Jonas
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.2016.00208.x
Subject(s) - technical debt , subsea , computer science , system integration , systems engineering , debt , risk analysis (engineering) , engineering , business , software , software development , finance , marine engineering , programming language , operating system
In software engineering, technical debt is often used to measure and describe the cost of accumulated work tasks resulting from design decisions deviating from the intended architecture of systems. This paper investigates how to apply the technical debt metaphor to support the selection of integration strategy for complex subsea systems. The investigation presented in the paper is based on a case study that compares several aspects of technical debt in two alternative integration strategies used in an ongoing subsea development project at Aker Solutions (AKSO). Especially, aspects related to using technical debt to describe consequences of unexpected systems emergence during integration, and performing integration activities earlier in the development lifecycle, or in parallel with other engineering activities, have been investigated. The paper furthermore compare and support the case study results with literature. Results from the case study indicate that there is a higher level of inadvertent technical debt related to integration strategies that conduct Integration and Qualification activities late in the development lifecycle, or incorporate a temporal gap between activities for design, and integration.