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Combining Insights from Multiple Tools to Manage Technical Debt in Industrial C# Projects

Abstract

Technical Debt (TD) is a critical challenge in software development, leading to increased maintenance costs and reduced software quality over time. While considerable research has focused on identifying and managing TD in Java projects, studies on. NET (C#) projects remain limited. Additionally, existing approaches often rely on a single tool for TD detection, overlooking the benefits of combining multiple tools. In this paper, we analyze the effectiveness of Arcan, CodeScene, Designite, and DV8 on four industrial C#. NET 8 software products to address these research gaps. To validate and enrich our findings, we conducted online seminars and interviews with developers, architects, and managers involved in these projects, gathering practitioner insights on TD relevance and tool effectiveness. By leveraging complementary tools and practitioner feedback, we uncover different types of TD, including code-level, design, architectural, and knowledge debt. Our findings highlight each tool's strengths and limitations and demonstrate how integrating their outputs with expert input provides a more comprehensive and actionable TD assessment. Based on these insights, we propose a conceptual model for prioritizing and managing TD, offering guidance for practitioners.

Category

Academic chapter

Language

English

Author(s)

Affiliation

  • SINTEF Digital / Sustainable Communication Technologies
  • University of Oslo
  • VISMA
  • AKVA group

Date

31.10.2025

Year

2025

Publisher

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

Book

2025 IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME)

ISBN

9798331595876

Page(s)

709 - 720

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository