Master's Thesis Min Jeong Yu

Entwicklung eines unternehmensweiten Governance-Frameworks für die Verwaltung von Architekturschulden

Abstract

Technical Debt is a metaphor from financial debt to describe systems still performing its core functions but slowly coming to bestrategically unwanted and/ornot compatible. “Architectural debt” is a type of technical debt that has been caused due to intentional or unintentional software architectural decisions.While architecturaldecisions are the most importantand commonly encounteredsourceof technical debt, currently, there is a lack of tools to successfully measure and manage architectural debt. The objective of this thesis is to provide guidance on measuring, reducing and governing architectural debt, and to provide transparency of architectural debt management. Specifically, the thesis has three steps to achieve the goal: definition of architectural debt, quantification of architectural debt andbuilding thegovernance framework of architectural
debt management. Throughresearch, expert interviews and expert surveys, architectural debt is defined as well as its’ indicatorswhich are:gap with compliance, resistance to change, maintenance effort, complexity and strategic importance.Using the indicators defined, quantification model with multi-dimensional data is developed and applied by a case study from Allianz, an international insurance company.The case study is conducted both quantitatively and qualitatively to verify and refine the model. Governanceframework of architectural debt is suggested in line with information risk managementfor large corporates to manage architectural debt.
The findings from the case studyhavelimitations due to missing and not complete data leading to possibly a less comprehensive result. However, using the model, framework, and results of the case study as a foundation, an automated and comprehensiveprocess of identifying, quantifying and governing the architectural debt can be achieved.