Technical debt is frequently the result of short-run decisions made during code development, which can lead to long-term maintenance costs and risks. In this way, it is essential to evaluate the project’s progression and understand different influence factors. Fortunately, the prioritization process for addressing technical debt can be expedited with static code analysis tools like the established SonarQube. Unfortunately, we experienced, inter alia, with SonarQube some limitations and have perceived some requirements from the industry that were not yet addressed. By means of this experience report and the analysis of scientific papers, this work contributes: (1) a comprehensive reassessment of Code Debt within the industry, (2) highlights the benefits of employing SonarQube as well as its limitations when evaluating and prioritizing code debt, (3) introduces a novel tool named SoHist which addresses some of these limitations and offers additional features for the assessment and prioritization of technical debt, and (4) exemplifies the usage of this tool in two industrial settings as part of the ITEA3 SmartDelta project.

Benedikt Dornauer

University of Innsbruck; University of Cologne

Austria

Michael Felderer

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Germany

Johannes Weinzerl

c.c.com Moser GmbH, 8074 Grambach, Austria

Austria

Mircea-Cristian Racasan

c.c.com Moser GmbH, 8074 Grambach, Austria

Austria

Martin Hess

Software AG, 64297 Darmstadt, Germany

Germany