Identification and measurement of Requirements Technical Debt in software development: A systematic literature review

Context: Requirements Technical Debt are related to the distance between the ideal value of the specification and the actual implementation of the system, which are consequences of strategic decisions for immediate gains, or unintended changes in context. To ensure the evolution of the software, it is necessary to to manage TD. Identification and measurement are the first two stages of the management process; however, they are poorly explored in academic research in requirements engineering. Objective: We aimed to investigating which evidence helps to strengthen the TD requirements management process, including identification and measurement. Method: We conducted a Systematic Literature Review through manual and automatic searches considering 7499 studies from 2010 to 2020, and including 66 primary studies. Results: We identified some causes related to Technical Debt requirements, existing strategies to help in the identification and measurement, and metrics to support the measurement stage. Conclusion: The studies on Requirements Technical Debt are still preliminary, especially regarding management software. Yet, however, the interpersonal aspects that prove difficult in the implementa-tion of such activities are not sufficiently addressed. Finally, the provision of metrics to help measure technical debt is part of the contribution of this search, providing insights into the application in its requirements context. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.