TechDebt Tracker: Towards a Method for Monitoring Technical Debt in Agile Projects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5753/jserd.2026.5953Keywords:
technical debt, agile methods, project managementAbstract
Context: Software companies that adopt agile methods face numerous challenges in sustaining the long-term evolution of software systems. Technical debt is a key contributor to poor maintainability, often leading to failures in agile software projects. This situation becomes even more problematic when managers do not adequately address technical debt items. Objective: This paper proposes the TechDebt Tracker, a method for supporting the documentation and monitoring of technical debt items within technical debt management activities in the context of agile projects. Method: We employed Design Science Research to develop and evaluate the proposal, following the summarized steps of related work review, problem definition, design and development, demonstration, and evaluation. In the related work review, we examined studies with similar research questions across multiple digital libraries. During the design and development phase, we used Design Thinking, the Business Model Canvas, and the Value Proposition Canvas to identify vulnerabilities and opportunities for improvement in the emerging solution. The proposal was demonstrated in a small software company, from which feedback was gathered to refine the method. The evaluation phase consisted of a small-scale study assessed through questionnaires. Results: The proposal comprises three components: two formulas, a kanban board, and a flow. The formulas are used to measure the impact of technical debt on the project and incorporate data such as the developer’s hourly rate, severity, and penalty associated with each technical debt item. The kanban board includes several columns—such as monitoring, technical debt backlog, and testing—as well as a card template used to register and prioritize each technical debt item. The flow consists of states and actions that, when used together with the kanban board, define a method for monitoring technical debt. The company evaluated the proposal positively, highlighting its technical adequacy. Conclusions: We recommend evaluating the proposal in additional contexts and hope that this proposal will be adopted by software companies that employ agile methodologies in diverse scenarios. Our goal is to take a step toward developing a method that can be used in the daily operations of companies to simplify technical debt management.
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