Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Technical Debt Is An Ethical Issue, Paul John Gibson, Yannis Stavrakakis, Massamaesso Narouwa, Damian Gordon, Dympna O'Sullivan, Jonathan Turner, Michael Collins

Conference Papers

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 …