Effects of Technical Debt on Software Interoperability

Technical debt (TD) refers to sub-optimal development decisions that make the software costly to maintain and evolve. Examples of TD include structural complexity, violation of coding styles, and code complexity. Existing research has investigated the nature, causes and indicators of TD, as well as tools and strategies for managing TD. However, although TD could hinder the ability of a software system to be interoperable with others, existing literature has limited evidence on how TD affects systems interoperability. This limits the ability of software engineering teams to manage TD in ways that do not hinder systems interoperability. To fill this void, two system interoperability projects in the health sector, involving 35 systems, were analysed to understand how TD affects systems interoperability. The complexity of the healthcare domain and the diversity of the 35 systems enabled a clear understanding of the intricate interactions between technical debt and systems interoperability. The identified interoperability challenges were mapped to five different TD types, all of which can be linked to software development practices that do not prioritise responsible management of TD. Documentation and requirements debt were identified as the most prevalent barriers to interoperability in the studied healthcare domain. The findings suggest that improving software development processes through interoperability-sensitive TD management strategies could improve software interoperability. The paper makes an empirical contribution by mapping interoperability challenges to technical debt, enabling us to conceptualise system interoperability challenges as consequences of technical debt. The implications of this contribution for domain and research practices are also provided.